KyAAMS

Safety Committee Meeting

3/28/05

Attendance:

            MedFlight                     Dwight Brooks (aviation technician) / Linda Minton

            PHI                              Liz Schroeder

            LifeNet                         Marc Manley

            STATCARE                ___________

            AirEvac                        ___________

                                                             AGENDA

1.                  Establish officers

2.                  Outline agenda and goals

3.                  Ideas to ponder

a.       Use of Open lines (air to air)

b.      Mountain top LZ’s for night time landings

c.       Closest helicopter usage

d.      Safety Education

e.       LZ course standardization

f.        Survival courses

4.                  AAMS Recommendations discussion

5.                  Outerlink / GPS tracking

6.                  Regional Dispatch

7.                  Safety Summit

 1.   Election of officers will have to be tabled until the next meeting due to poor

            attendance.  Representatives for each program are:

            STATCARE                ___________

                                                ___________

            PHI                              Liz Schroeder

                                                Stacey Grable

                                                Kenny Watts

                                                Jill Johnson

MedFlight                     Dwight Brooks

                                    John Ray

LifeNet                         Randy Wiggers

AirEvac                        Jason Ingram

2.   Review of agenda and goals.

3.   Ideas

·        Discussion regarding adapting Florida’s Statewide Air Response for

Disasters.  Follow up to be provided by Marc (?).  Safety Committee

to work on formulating a Kentucky plan.

·        Discussion regarding dispatch and flight following.  Of concern is the

notification for flight following without permission (depending on

other programs because a program’s com center cannot be reached).

Will require continued discussion.  Also noted, that air ambulances

are not using air to air open line to communicate with each other.  It

is strongly recommended by KY AAMS that all programs use the open

line whenever they are in the air.

·        Safety presentations at each membership meeting by the following

Programs:

            July – STATCARE

            September – PHI

            November – LifeNet

            January – MedFlight

·        Discussion regarding LZ course standardization.  All programs are to send

current pictures of their aircraft to Linda Minton.  Linda will be presenting

a LZ program at KAPA this September for KY AAMS.

·        Discussion regarding a statewide survival course to include all programs

licensed in Kentucky.  This will be a project for the Safety Committee.

·        Due to the terrain in Eastern Kentucky, it is recommended that night time

LZ’s designated to reduce the valley landings.  MedFlight will work on this project and report progress at the next meeting.  These designated LZ’s will be available for all air services flying into this area.

4.   Discussion of AAMS recommendations from meetings in Washington, D.C.  Lively debate over NVG’s and its usage in air ambulance programs.  Further study is required and all information should be shared with each program’s representatives.  Discussed the recommended minimums for VFR daytime only, IFR nighttime or NVG.  Concern raised about possible FAA direction(s) regarding air ambulance safety and recent events.  The Safety Committee will study the information coming from National resources and bring back ideas to the Board.

5.   Outerlink / GPS following.  This discussion was included in the Regional Dispatch idea.  Further study and discussion are required.

6.   EMS Safety Summit discussion.  Safety Committee to work closely with the pending Education Committee to formulate a plan for this event.

7.   Open Forum

·        Fund Raising – T shirts / Sweatshirts / LZ Kits with KY AAMS logo

8.   Programs are encouraged to send their representatives to the meetings so that we can begin to make progress in creating and supporting a safe environment for all air programs in Kentucky and surrounding states.

Respectfully submitted,

Linda Minton, RN, BSN, CCEMTP

Program Director

MedFlight of East Kentucky Air & Ground Transport