Page 23 - Ultrasonography in Prehospital and Emergency Medicine - Rein Ketelaars
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Dutch HEMS
In the Netherlands, four HEMS teams are operational. They operate as an adjunct to the land-based ambulance service. The aim is to transport an expert physician and nurse to crit- ically ill and injured patients to deliver hospital-level medical care.
The four HEMS are affiliated with four Level 1 trauma centers: VU University Medical Cen- ter (VUmc) Amsterdam, Erasmus University Medical Center (ErasmusMC) Rotterdam, Radboud university medical center (Radboudumc) Nijmegen, and University Medical Cen- ter Groningen (UMCG). In 1995, the Amsterdam (Lifeliner 1) HEMS was the first to be operational in the Netherlands. The Nijmegen HEMS (Lifeliner 3) made its maiden voyage on March 1st, 2001.
At present, the helicopters and pilots are provided by the Royal Dutch Touring Club (Koninklijke Nederlandse Toeristenbond) ANWB.
In 2018 the Nijmegen HEMS performed 2895 scrambles and in January 2018 its crews treated their 10,000th patient since modern record-keeping started in 2007.
The Nijmegen HEMS is stationed at the Volkel Air Force Base and services an area of roughly 10,000 km2 with 4.5 million inhabitants (Figure 1.12). When required, however, they can be deployed throughout the country including parts of the German territory.
A HEMS team consists of a pi- lot, a helicopter crew member (HCM), and a physician. Many pilots have got a military/air force background. The HCMs are am- bulance nurses or ED nurses with extensive clinical or preclinical experience. Some are also quali- fied as a nurse anesthetist. Their main tasks are flight planning, navigation, and the assistance of
Introduction, aims, and outline of this thesis 21
Figure 1.12
The Nijmegen HEMS is stationed at the Volkel Air Force Base
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