S.F. General Not Equipped For Medevac

May 10 - KGO (KGO) -- If you are ever seriously injured, you're going to need medical care as soon as possible. In many cases, a helicopter is the quickest way to a trauma center. But one of the Bay Area's biggest hospitals isn't equipped to accept air-evac patients. The San Francisco Planning Commission is taking up that issue.

Sometimes, when life is hanging by a thread, an ambulance ride can take entirely too long. Speed could be the only thing between you and a death certificate.

Lisa Yonaka, Valley Medical Center: "The patients arrive more quickly by helicopter and we can begin resuscitation immediately."

At Valley Medical Center in San Jose and seven other hospitals around the Bay Area, helipads allow emergency helicopters to land. The most severe cases go to level one trauma centers -- those staffed 24/7 to deal with the most critical cases.

Mitch Katz, S.F. Department of Health: "San Francisco General Hospital is the only level one trauma center in the entire United States that doesn't have a helipad."

Health Department Chief, Dr. Mitch Katz, oversees San Francisco General Hospital. It's the trauma center for more than one-and-a-half million people living and working in San Francisco and Northern San Mateo County.

Dr. Katz wants a landing pad on the roof of San Francisco General.

Dr. Mitch Katz: "There are two major reasons why you need it. One is to be able to bring people who need immediate trauma care more rapidly to a hospital, and second, and often not as well appreciated, because sometimes something will go wrong in a hospital, such as a hospital will lose electricity and you need to be able to rapidly evacuate people to another facility."

Currently patients medevac'd to General land at SFO where they are transferred to an ambulance and driven into the city and minutes, a lot of minutes, are lost.

So, a helipad seems like a reasonable idea. Trauma patients get the care they need and lives are saved. Most communities would jump at the chance for faster medical response, but this is San Francisco.

Rebecca Sawyer represents a group of nearby residents that oppose the helipad.

Rebecca Sawyer, Stophelipad.org: "Helicopters flying over the city is a very dangerous idea."

According to the FAA, the number of accidents involving air ambulances tripled from six in 1998 to 18 in 2003. That's why the agency introduced tough new regulations resulting in fewer accidents despite a dramatic increase in the number of medical helicopter licenses.

Still, neighbors near the hospital worry a helicopter crash like the one in Southern California last December could burn and destroy homes. They also worry the noise from choppers flying over the neighborhood will be too disruptive, and they question just who will benefit from a helipad since most of the patients brought to General will be outsiders.

Rebecca Sawyer: "The lives that they hope to save will not be San Francisco lives. They'll be people brought in from surrounding lower level trauma centers."

Dr. Katz points says that's precisely why they need a helipad.

Dr. Mitch Katz: "What if we exceed our ICU capacity, we need to be able to take those patients to the next trauma center."

Neighbors also question spending five million dollars on a helipad that may eventually be torn down, or worse, be damaged in a major disaster. The non-profit hospital foundation will raise the money for the helipad.

Sawyer suggests using landing sites in someone else's neighborhood. The Office of Emergency Services has identified 29 sites around San Francisco to land a helicopter in the event of, say, an earthquake. Most have not been tested; none are next to the hospital.

Rebecca Sawyer: "If General is too crowded, they shouldn't even take them to General. They should pick them up at all these spots and take them to whatever other place they have in mind."

Sawyer also says the hospital just wants to make more money which would displace those who need the care the most. Dr. Katz dismisses the claim.

Dr. Mitch Katz: "It's not about money. What it is about is trying to get people here faster."

The busy Bay Area hospitals that do have helipads often get two helicopter landings a day. The city's preliminary report predicts San Francisco General will average just one per day.

Written and produced by Ken Miguel.

Get more News »

• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•