"I live on Blue Angel and almost every morning and evening I get stuck in the long line of traffic being blocked by ECSO and ECFR because of the helicopter landing at the ER. This is almost every day, several times a day and takes at least 30 minutes if not longer each time. Why doesn't the hospital put a landing pad on there property so the helicopter doesn't have to land on Blue Angel and block traffic? Would you look into this PLEASE!! It's been getting more and more frequent. Thank you"
So I have been asking questions of the public safety department about it.
According to the data I now have, we have had 140 life-flight helicopter pick ups/transfers from the newly constructed West Florida Hospital/Perdido Bay Emergency Room Facility at Hwy 98 and Blue Angel Parkway since January 1st.
Normally this would not be an issue--were it not for two details.
#1--there is no helicopter landing facility at this stand-alone ER facility---so when the choppers come and go, the county must send a fire-truck and the ECSO must send a Deputy Sheriff to block traffic on HWY 98.
#2--And for this---the frequent rolling of our firetrucks from Myrtle Grove 3 miles away-- the county is not being compensated.
In addition to all the air transfers via helicopter, the county's ambulances have transferred 900 patients from this facility since the first of the year--for which the county issues bills to the patient and is compensated.
I'm not sure why so many flights are coming into this facility as typically a life-flight situation is uncommon and deals with a major, time-sensitive life-threatening trauma case. Are there really this many life-threatening trauma cases requiring helicopter transfers out of this one small stand alone ER facility in this area of Escambia County?---I'm going to ask what the acuity requirements for air transport vice standard ambulance---are all of these transports for critical patients? and most importantly: Who is paying for this? The patients? Their insurance? This WEAR story from July 7th intimates that many of the local life flight transfers are COVID-19 patients--so I wonder if there is some monetary incentive being paid by the government for all these flights? That would make sense as this practice apparently has ramped-up significantly since the Pandemic.
I'll be looking into this to figure out what we need to do going forward to ensure this practice does not shut down traffic and pull our firetrucks out of the stations on this frequent of a basis--I've never heard anything like this before. Stay tuned, more to come on this.
See the total number of ambulance transfers from this location here. See the helicopter flights that have shut down traffic since the first of the year and required the dispatch of one of our firetrucks here, below.
