San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) wants to build a helipad on the Main Building's roof.  SFGH predicts 3 landings and 3 departures a day.  That's 6 helicopter events per 24-hour day; 40%  of these flights will occur between 11pm and 7 am.

SF patients would not use the helipad
Helicopters would not be housed at SF General's helipad; they would be kept at the Concord heliport.  When 911 calls for a helicopter, it takes 5-10 minutes to assemble the crew, warm-up engines, take off from Concord; then there's 15-18 minutes air-travel time to San Francisco.  So it would take about 30 minutes for a helicopter to arrive at any SF trauma site.  Ground ambulance, with average response time under 8 minutes, will continue to provide the best service to San Francisco residents in need of emergency transport.   

WHAT PATIENTS WOULD BENEFIT FROM THE HELIPAD?
According to the Hospital, the proposed SFGH helipad would primarily be used as a medical transportation hub for stabilized patients, transferring from other California county trauma centers to SFGH and to other San Francisco hospitals.  Many of these patients currently use the SFO airport and should continue to do so.

helipad at SF General would not save additional lives. 
Only 8% of the predicted 700 flights each year would be rescues from an injury site, most from Bay Area recreational sites or highways.  The 53 predicted rescues per year are now flown to other Bay Area hospitals with helipads (click map below).  In fact, these other Bay Area Trauma Centers with helipads, are often closer to the rescue scene, and ALL are far less crowded than SFGH. 

San Francisco General, our ONLY County Hospital, is FULL
SFGH is San Francisco's only Trauma Center and the only SF County Hospital.  But due to over-crowding, it's on full ambulance diversion 20 % of the time.  When local residents (whose tax dollars support SF General), have a medical emergency, there is a 1-in-5 chance that SFGH will be too full to treat them; they then go to St. Luke's, but that emergency room will be closing in 2009.

WHY does SFGH want PATIENTS FROM OTHER COUNTIES?
Because helicopter transport is so expensive, ($20,000 per helicopter flight), it is only available to insured or high-income patients.  SFGH hopes to attract at least 400 such patients.  These patients, who come from California counties as far away as Lake Tahoe, or the Oregon border, currently fly to Trauma Centers in Palo Alto, Sacramento, San Jose and Oakland.  If these insured patients came to SFGH, their insurance would pay for their treatment in our hospital.  The SFGH Feasibility Study cheered this "increased downstream revenue". as would we all, if there were empty beds to fill at our hospital.  But with a 20% diversion rate, a flood of additional out-of-county patients would further reduce hospital care for local residents.

SERVING OTHER COUNTIES is beyond the SFGH mission
SFGH's mission, is to serve SF's 1.5 million residents and visitors, particularly low-income and uninsured residents, who must pay for emergency service if treated at any other hospital.  SFGH revenue should NOT depend upon wealthy patients from surrounding counties, at the cost of reduced emergency services for San Franciscans. 
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In the News: Read the Wall Street Journal article on 'Emergency Medical Helicopters Overuse'.

"Unfortunately, the city of San Francisco has had a history of tragedy in and around the use of helicopters"

EMS Helicopter crash rate is highest in aviation industry
The rate of FATAL CRASHES in helicopter Emergency Medical Services (EMS) operations is higher than the rate for all other categories of aviation.   http://www.alea.org/public/airbeat/back_issues/mar_apr_2006/2006_EMS_Accident_Study.pdf

2008:  34  FATAL US Helicopter Crashes: 80 killed
2008:  11 MEDICAL Helicopter crashes; 29 killed

U.S. FATAL and MEDICAL helicopter crashes listed below:

Mar. 5, 2009, Gainsville, FL, Duck hits Medical Helicopter windshield
http://www.fixmywindshield.com/articles/?p=92

Oct. 13, 2008, Sedona, AZ- Medical helicopter accident, 1 killed
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6055595.html

Sept. 5, 2008, Oahu, HI - Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin (MEDEVAC-type) crashes into ocean, 4 killed
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080905/BREAKING01/309050013/-1/LOCALNEWSFRONT

*August 31, 2008, Greensburg, IN - Medical helicopter explodes on impact in corn field, 3 killed
http://www.wthr.com/global/story.asp?s=8929539

August 29, 2008, Taney, AR - 2 killed
http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880829039

August 17, 2008, Olalla, WA - 1 killed, apparent power loss.
http://www.gateline.com/104/story/2150.html

August 5, 2008, Weaverville, CA - 9 killed, 4 seriously injured, unexplained main rotor power failure on takeoff.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/us/22brfs-005.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin

July 19, 2008, Price, UT - 3 killed
http://www.localnews8.com/Global/story.asp?S=8705257

July 15, 2008, Salesville, ARK - 2 killed, helicopter hits power lines
http://www.ky3.com/news/local/25465364.html

July 4, 2008, Sunol, CA - 2 killed, helicopter hits power lines
 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/04/BA3N11K66A.DTL&tsp=1

*June 29, 2008, Flagstaff, AZ -  medical helicopters collide, 3 killed, 3 injured http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20080715X01051&key=1

*June 29, 2008, Flagstaff, AZ -  medical helicopters collide, 4 killed, 3 injured http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20080715X01051&key=1 

*June 27, 2008, Ash Fork, AZ - Medical helicopter crashes, 3 injured http://www.abc15.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=a3b8a1b8-5f07-4f6f-ab09-56e9ff29e446

*June 8, 2008, Huntsville, TX - Medical helicopter crashes, 4 killed http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20080613X00858&key=1

*May 30, 2008, Pottsville, PA - Medical helicopter crashes, 2 injured http://www.wnep.com/Global/story.asp?S=8405109&nav=5juw

*May 29, 2008, Grand Rapids, MI - Medical helicopter crashes on hospital roof : http://www.wwmt.com/articles/pilot_1349917___article.html/crash_helipad.html

May 25, 2008, Sunrise Beach, MO, 1 killed:
http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20080529X00752&key=1

May 24, 2008, Catalina, CA, 3 killed, 3 injured:
http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20080529X00746&key=1

May 15, 2008, Comstock, MI, 1 killed:
http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20080527X00729&key=1

*May 10, 2008, LaCrosse WI, Medical helicopter crashes, 3 killed,
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hlggrhdigQlDQmaZeT8nBAUWr7RQD90JQNUG0

April 28, 2008, Bartlet, TX, 1 killed:
http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20080505X00592&key=1

April 15, 2008, Chickaloon, Alaska, 4 killed, 1 injured:
http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20080421X00524&key=1

March 13, 2008, Wilmington, NC, 1 killed:
http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20080321X00357&key=1

*Feb 5, 2008, South Padre, TX, Medical helicopter crashes, 3 killed:
http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20080222X00227&key=1

Jan 25, 2008, Los Angeles , CA, 1 killed:
http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20080201X00130&key=1

Jan 22, 2008, Collier County , FL, 2 killed:
http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20080128X00108&key=1