Spinal Clearance

Jems.com has an article published yesterday concerning a study relating spinal clearance and HEMS.

The study is entitled “Clinical Clearance of Spinal Immobilization in the Air Medical Environment: A Feasibility Study.” This study was published in the Journal of Trauma and thus I do not have access to the entire data set.

What I do have access to is a knowledge base of common sense.

Honestly, the fact that this is even being considered is moronic at best. If someone is stable enough to be cleared from spinal precautions in flight by HEMS crews, they had no business putting them in the aircraft to start.

Further, doing a spinal clearance exam in the back of a helicopter which is 1/3 the size of an ambulance is completely insane.

I think this study proves how irresponsible we are being with HEMS. We aren’t just wasting money(and a lot of it), we are risking lives. The use of HEMS in many settings is debatable enough in itself, we need not compromise logic altogether in the use of HEMS.

I admit that many flight crews are better medics than I am. I’ll also admit that I’ve met enough flight crews that were mediocre at best and scary or dangerous sometimes, to know that being a flight medic does not mean you are a good medic.

No one ever considered doing this on the ground and there are plenty of ground crews out there with the same or more Critical Care training than flight crews. My Internship was with a service that ran Critical Care trucks that had a Nurse/Medic crew and I promise that they never considered doing a spinal clearance exam in the field.

Be smart out there. Watch your back and do what you KNOW is best for the patient. Sometimes that means bucking the line, and sometimes that means fighting a system hell bent on making the most money possible.

Good Luck, Godspeed, be safe.