Air medical transport utilization review in North Carolina.

Objective: To perform a review of the collective experience of all hospital-based helicopter ambulances in the state of North Carolina for compliance with utilization review criteria. Design: Flight records of the six members of the North Carolina Aeromedical Affiliation for the months of November and December 1989 were compared with utilization review criteria by an independent reviewer. A secondary review was performed by a staff member for each service. Scene responses and patients flown to a hospital other than the sponsor were evaluated. Setting: All six hospital-based helicopter services in North Carolina. Type of participants: All available flight records for November and December 1989. Interventions: None. Measurements and main results: Of 756 transports, 747 flight records were available for review. Initial review demonstrated compliance with the criteria for 713 (95.4%) patients; secondary review showed compliance for 18 of 34 flights not meeting initial review, for an overall compliance rate of 97.9%. Compliance rates for scene responses and transports taken to a hospital other than the sponsoring facility were 96.6% and 94.1%, respectively. Conclusions: Review of all flights over a period of two months by all six hospital-based helicopter services in North Carolina using utilization review criteria demonstrated a very high rate of compliance with the established criteria.