(no subject)

[J C <kyfltgal@usa.net>]

THE PLAIN DEALER
Cleveland, Ohio.

Replacing Life Flight at UH unacceptable, some officials say.

4/21/01

By Karen Farkas

Solon, Ohio. -  University Hospital officials say the decision to replace the
MetroHealth Life Flight helicopter at the St. Vincent Solon Medical Center
with one affiliated with its hospital was a matter of consolidating services.

But officials of eastern suburbs that use the service saw it as a matter of
life and death.

They said not only would UH's helicopter, called MedEvac, be there only three
days a week, but also the copters are staffed by a nurse and a paramedic,
while Life Flight has a doctor and a nurse on board each flight.  Solon Fire
Chief William Shaw said he still planned to call Life Flight because he wants
a doctor on the scene.  "If a patient is in serious condition, he needs
immediate care, and while paramedics are well trained an equipped, you need
definitive care with specialized equipment," he said.

Solon Mayor Kevin Patton, who set up the meeting Wednesday with UH and St.
Vincent officials and suburban officials, likened MedEvac to a "flying taxi
ride' in a statement that said replacing Life Flight with MedEvac was
unacceptable.

Aurora Mayor Margaret Duncan said after the meeting that community officials
expressed concerns that the perception now is that there will be less service,
and it is up to UH to change that.

Dr. William F. Fallon Jr., director of trauma services and Life Flight at
Metro, said the hospital was not going to abandon eastern communities.  Life
Flight will be moved to Metro's skilled nursing facility on Richmond Rd. in
Highland Hills.

"No way under the sun am I going to move my helicopter out of that area and
allow the people to have a substandard level of care," he said.

The helipad dispute reignited the animosity between Metro and UH over their
helicopter services.

UH had its own helicopter system but eliminated it in 1992, citing costs.  At
that time, it signed a contract with Life Flight.

But in 1998, UH signed a contract with STAT MedEvac in Pittsburgh to provide
helicopter transport, saying it had to reinstitute a service because of Life
Flights escalating costs.  UH also said that there had been incidences where
critically ill children were transported to MetroHealth instead of UH's
Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, despite parent's requests.  Metro denied
it diverted patients.

The helipad at the Solon Medical Center has been the home for Life Flight for
at least 15 years.  St. Vincent Charity entered into a partnership with
University Hospitals Health System in June 1999.  St. Vincent plans to switch
helicopter services May 1.

Angie Morano, a senior vice president at UH, said placing the UH helicopter in
Solon was about "continuity of care" in the hospital system.

She said 90 percent of medical air transport services are run with nurses and
paramedics on board.  "It is by far the most widely accepted as the best model
and one of the most effective," she said.  She said if a doctor needed to be
aboard MedEvac for patient care, one would go with the patient, although that
is infrequent.  Since 1998, the MedEvac helicopter had made 1,600 flights, UH
officials said.

Metro, which also has helicopters at its hospital and at Aultman Hospital in
Canton, has a total of about 300 flights a month.  A third are from the East
Side, Fallon said.  Only three flights a month involve a patient from the
Solon Medical Center.

St. Vincent officials said the MedEvac copter would be in Solon three days a
week, at UH three days a week and at St. John West Shore Hospital in Westlake
one day a week.  That would open up the helipad to any air transport service
and align all the services at the hospitals.

"It adds to the flexibility" of the helipad, said St. Vincent spokeswoman
Jenny Hovinen.


_______________________________________________
Flightmed mailing list