By Daniel Barbarisi
Rhode Island Hospital currently has a helipad one block away in a parking lot.
PROVIDENCE — Medical helicopters might soon touch down on the roof of Rhode Island Hospital, bringing patients to the emergency room faster and likely luring more helicopters to land there, rather than flying over on their way to Massachusetts hospitals.
The hospital has a helipad now, but it is a block away in a surface parking lot. When a helicopter lands, the hospital must close several streets and call an ambulance to bring the patient from the helicopter to the emergency room. The transfer takes 15 minutes, an eternity when dealing with the types of severe cases the helicopter brings in.
The hospital plans to build a helipad on the roof of one of its main buildings, cutting the transfer time to only a couple minutes. A ramp will lead from the pad to the elevator used by the so-called trauma alley.
“We have a trauma elevator that goes right into trauma alley, or into the [operating room],” said Charles Olmstead, director of shared services for the hospital.
Reducing the time it takes to transfer a patient from a chopper to the emergency room should result in more helicopter landings at the hospital, hospital officials say.
Helicopters are used for rapid transport in heart cases and life- threatening trauma. Helicopters are also used to fly in organs for transplants.
The hospital is served by four private helicopter companies and the Coast Guard. As the only level-one trauma center in Rhode Island, the hospital draws many helicopters from southern Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts and Connecticut — but some helicopters pass over Rhode Island Hospital and take patients to hospitals in Massachusetts instead.
The flight surgeon determines where the helicopter should land, depending on the severity of the injury or illness, each hospital’s specialties and the time and distance involved.
Hospital spokeswoman Nancy Cawley said Rhode Island Hospital now lands one or two helicopters weekly. The hospital expects that number to rise with the new helipad.
“All five of the helicopter transport agencies thought this would be a huge improvement and because of that, we anticipate a higher usage,” Cawley said.
That’s consistent with the hospital’s goal of becoming more of a regional medical center. The helipad and the emergency department are in the Bridge Building, a brick structure built in 2005 over Dudley Street at a cost of $70 million.
“It fits with our mission. We want to be out there in the forefront of patient care,” Olmstead said.
The 54-foot-by-54-foot helipad will sit six feet off the roof and cover one-fifth of the roof of the Bridge Building, two stories above street level. It will feature an advanced fire suppression system and five feet of safety netting around each side.
The construction plan required an exemption on the number of exits used, which the hospital received from the Providence Building Board of Review on Thursday. Approval from the state fire marshal is still required, as are building permits from the city. None of those is expected to be a roadblock.
If the permitting process begins soon, the pad could be landing helicopters by early fall. The helipad would cost roughly $1 million to construct, Cawley said.
The location of the current helipad also makes for difficult landings — helicopters must fly over the site and then drop nearly straight down to the pad. The new helipad will allow for a more gradual landing, Olmstead said. [email protected] / (401) 277- 8062
Originally published by Daniel Barbarisi, Journal Staff Writer.
(c) 2008 Providence Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
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