Using NEMSIS to report annual air medical transport statistics

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to use the National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS) dataset to generate national air medical transport statistics.

Methods: Retrospective review of the 2021 NEMSIS dataset to identify all air medical transfers, both fixed- and rotor-wing. Transfers where then subcategorized into interfacility and scene responses. Frequencies for each category were generated and reported.

Results: A total of 317,267 air medical transfers were completed in 2021. These included 19,421 (6 %) with missing incident location code data. Of the 297,706 transfers with valid location codes, 208,689 (70%) were interfacility transfers, and 89,016 (30%) were scene responses.

Conclusion: These preliminary results are consistent with other national estimates and achieve representation of all states and territories. Future work will include longitudinal analysis of NEMSIS datasets and direct survey of transport programs to establish long-term reliability.