Air medical transport utilization review in North Carolina.
OBJECTIVE
To perform a review of the collective experience of all hospital-based helicopter ambulances in the state of North Carolina for compliance with utilization review criteria.


METHODS
Flight records of the six members of the North Carolina Aeromedical Affiliation for the months of November and December 1989 were compared with utilization review criteria by an independent reviewer.  A secondary review was performed by a staff member for each service. Scene responses and patients flown to a hospital other than the sponsor were evaluated.


METHODS
All six hospital-based helicopter services in North Carolina.


METHODS
All available flight records for November and December 1989.


METHODS
None.


RESULTS
Of 756 transports, 747 flight records were available for review. Initial review demonstrated compliance with the criteria for 713 (95.4%) patients; secondary review showed compliance for 18 of 34 flights not meeting initial review, for an overall compliance rate of 97.9%.  Compliance rates for scene responses and transports taken to a hospital other than the sponsoring facility were 96.6% and 94.1%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Review of all flights over a period of two-months by all six hospital-based helicopter services in North Carolina using utilization review criteria demonstrated a very high rate of compliance with the established criteria.
Department of Emergency Medicine, East Carolina University School of Medicine, Greenville, N.C.
N H
NH
Benson
R L
RL
Alson
E G
EG
Norton
A P
AP
Beauchamp
R
R
Weber
J L
JL
Carreras
D000401:Aircraft / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D009657:North Carolina; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014600:Utilization Review / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data