Priority System

Priorities are set to ensure that conflicting flight requests are dealt with in order of medical need and to allow operations coordinators to task aircraft and crews in the most efficient means possible to meet these needs.

Priority systems categorise patients according to the urgency of the case; that is, how quickly the patient must be attended. This is not necessarily the same as the severity of the patient's illness. Some patients have a high level of urgency but may not be critically ill, for example, advanced pre-term labour. Other patients my be critically ill but relatively stable and the level of care during transport is therefore more important than speed.

Our priority system grades flights according to performance benchmarks. These relate to the delay between receipt of the first call and arrival of the aircraft crew. The response time from receipt of the call to the departure of the aircraft incorporates delays in the RFDS (Western Operations) system, including the time taken to assess the flight and assign a priority, the time taken to task the crew, and the time taken for the crew to prepare for the flight and take off. Time from take off to arrival is primarily dependent on the patient's location and the distance from the nearest base over which we have little control. However the time can be improved by diversion of aircraft in the area or lengthened by resource issues which require the tasking of a crew from a base which is not the nearest.

Arrival time is important medically, particularly for locations with limited resources, and is the most obvious performance parameter in the eyes of the referring centre. In determining the priority, a judgement of the flight times involved also needs to be made, especially for patients requiring transport over long distances.

The national RFDS priorities used are:

Priority 1 • "Life threatening emergency"

Flight departs in the shortest possible time (subject to weather and essential safety requirements).

Priority 2 • "Urgent medical transfer"

Flight departs promptly (within performance criteria) with flight planning requirements met on the ground.

Priority 3 • "Elective transfer"

Flight tasked to make best use of resources and crew hours. Once tasked, departs within performance criteria set.

Priority 1 and 2 flights cover those emergency and retrieval flights where time is an important factor in the patient's management. Priority 3 relates to routine air medical transport operations where urgency is not a key factor.

Note there is no formal stand-by category. We define these patients as not warranting a special flight. They will be carried on an opportunity basis only, in which case they should be recorded as Priority 3 in flight documentation This includes most returning patients.

 

Last Updated: 08/06/2008