Sadly yes. There is a very gung-ho attitude:
Arizona Medical Helicopter Crash Brings Awareness To Local Airmed Safety Protocol - News - Augusta, GA
Hatfield: "If you could imagine...you have a trama patient in the back of the aircraft that could possibly be dying, and your crew is working franticaly to save their life, as well as, you may be flying through airspace. At the same time, you need to be talking to air traffic control plus be vigilant of other aircraft in the area. So, it's a very demanding enviroment that you have to continually strive to do your best."
It is stange that having said that, procedures and hazard management are weaker when there is NO patient (or an organ unconnected to the crew and medics!) on board.
Medical alert-21/02/2006-Flight International
As part of the International Helicopter safety Team effort, from the U.S. Joint Helicopter Safety Analysis Team: Year 2000 Report, after reviewing 12 EMS accidents from 2000 the following recommendations were made for US EMS:
1. Develop and use a formalized systems safety approach (i.e., SMS) to risk management and assessment to improve decision-making in flight operations and on a personal basis. Provide comprehensive risk management training to include mission-based risk assessment, weather assessment training and risk-based flight operations decision-making. The training should demonstrate that the safety culture of the organization encourages aborting or canceling the flight when the risk factors don’t justify conducting or continuing the mission.
2. Establish an operator safety culture that includes clearly communicated flight operations standards and procedures, a formalized flight operations quality oversight program, a clearly defined safety program that provides for non-punitive safety event reporting, the use of risk assessment and management practices and policy to reduce the risk of VFR flights being continued into adverse weather, and company management oversight to ensure compliance with regulations and procedures and to eliminate Procedural Intentional Non-Compliance (PINC).
3. Provide comprehensive training for all managers on their safety role in the organization and the organization’s role in providing a Safety Management System, to include safety standards and management accountability.
4. Provide training that would address: transition to a new make and model helicopter; helicopter preflight inspections; autorotation procedures and technique; recognition and response to aircraft system failures; and emergency procedures.
5. Encourage the use of new technology that would assist in raising pilots’ and crews’ situational awareness, e.g., night vision goggles (NVGs), synthetic vision systems (SVSs), terrain / proximity awareness, weather in the cockpit, GPS moving map displays, etc.
6. Develop a set of standards and a mentoring program for pilots and mechanics that places emphasis on managing / mitigating the increased risk during the following: less then one year’s service with the operator, less then one year’s experience with HEMS operations, less than one year at a particular geographical location, less then one year’s experience in a primary aircraft model.
7. Increase the frequency of and provide comprehensive ground, flight and / or simulator / flight training device (FTD) training to reduce the risk of inadvertent flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IIMC).
8. Provide comprehensive scenario-based ground and flight simulator training for Aeronautical Decision Making and risk identification and mitigation.
9. Promote the installation of cockpit data recorders (CDR) and cockpit voice recorders (CVRs), and establish a helicopter operations monitoring program (HOMP) or helicopter flight operations quality assurance program (HFOQA) to verify and improve employee flight performance. Provide feedback for scenario-based / line oriented flight training (LOFT).
10. Install cockpit recording devices to allow accident / incident investigators to understand system anomalies and pilot / crew performance that preceded an aircraft mishap.
11. Establish systems to ensure adherence to maintenance policy and procedures, and compliance with Quality Assurance requirements, with the emphasis on oversight and guidance for remote locations.
12. For OEMs: Develop a minimum equipment standard for HEMS aircraft. Emphasis should be placed on night vision-compatible cockpits, terrain / proximity awareness, weather in the cockpit, stability augmentation systems, etc.
13. For industry and operator associations: Develop an EMS community infrastructure for standardization of radios and training for those responsible for establishment and security of helicopter landing areas.