I bring you a weekly bite-sized chunk of the science behind helicopter human factors and CRM in practice, simplifying the complex and distilling a helicopter related study into a summary of less than 500 words.
TITLE:
Nine golden codes: Improving the accuracy of Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) dispatch—A retrospective, multi-organisational study in the east of England.
WHAT?
Study identifying a small number of emergency dispatch codes that are highly predictive of cases requiring Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS). The aim was to improve dispatch accuracy so that specialist helicopter teams are sent earlier to patients most likely to benefit, while reducing unnecessary taskings.
WHERE?
The research analysed dispatches across the East of England Ambulance Service and three HEMS organisations operating from five bases, covering a population of approximately 6.3 million.
WHEN?
Published in 2023 in the Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine. The analysis used dispatch data collected between 2016 and 2019.
WHY?
HEMS is a scarce, expensive and high-risk resource. Poor dispatch decisions can either delay specialists care or expose crews to unnecessary aviation risk through avoidable missions. Despite dispatch being recognised as a research priority for more than a decade, there has been little evidence to guide dispatch criteria. This study sought to provide an evidence-based approach using information available during the initial emergency call.
HOW?
Researchers analysed more than 25,000 HEMS dispatches and compared Advanced Medical Priority Dispatch System (AMPDS) codes with the actual outcome of each mission.
Two measures of dispatch quality were used: whether the HEMS crew made patient contact and whether they performed a HEMS-level intervention, such as pre-hospital emergency anaesthesia, advanced analgesia or helicopter transport.
Statistical modelling identified nine AMPDS codes that consistently predicted high-value HEMS missions.
FINDINGS:
Around 60% of dispatches resulted in patient contact and 37% involved specialist HEMS interventions.
The researchers identified nine “golden” dispatch codes that achieved both high patient contact and high intervention rates. Using these codes could reduce unnecessary stand-downs while ensuring rapid dispatch to incidents most likely to require advanced pre-hospital care.
The study also found that older patients and certain incident categories were more likely to require HEMS-level interventions.
SO WHAT?
Although not a typical H2F CRM or flight operations study, the study demonstrates how operational data can support human decision-making through evidence-based decision aids rather than replacing professional judgement.
The findings provide a foundation for AI-assisted dispatch systems capable of identifying high-priority incidents in real time. This is an early example of Human–Automation Teaming applied outside the cockpit, where intelligent decision support enhances consistency, reduces cognitive workload and improves system safety while keeping humans in control.
It illustrates that human factors effects extend across the entire emergency response system and are not limited to aircrew and airborne operations alone.
REFERENCE:
Edmunds, C. T., Lachowycz, K., McLachlan, S., Downes, A., Smith, A., Major, R., & Barnard, E. B. G. (2023). Nine golden codes: Improving the accuracy of Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) dispatch—a retrospective, multi-organisational study in the East of England. Scandinavians Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine, 31, 27. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13049-023-01094-w
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