Frequently Asked Questions

Do you use a medical helicopter for transporting critically ill or injured patients?

Sometimes we do, especially if the patient is in a remote area or the traffic or weather is particularly bad. However, those are pretty extreme circumstances. It's often faster (and cheaper than a helicopter ride costs approximately $8,000) to go by ambulance. When a helicopter is called, it takes some time to arrive. Then it must find an open area to land, such as a school playground. Since it is seldom directly next to our patient, we must load the patient into an ambulance and drive to the helicopter. If the helicopter goes to Harborview Medical Center, the landing pad is located near the facility and again the patient must be loaded into a waiting ambulance and transported to the emergency room.