Beginning next month, air ambulances in Colorado will – for the first time – have to be licensed and meet a comprehensive set of quality and safety standards.
The licensing requirement was five years in the making, and when it takes effect Feb. 1, only five states will remain that do not license air-ambulance operators, said Eileen Frazer, executive director of the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems.
While the Federal Aviation Administration regulates the aircraft, there is no national oversight of air ambulances.
Colorado is at the forefront of states requiring providers to not only license companies but also demand they meet the accrediting commission’s exacting standards.
“Our mission is to protect the public and provide quality prehospital care, and we are ahead of most states in that regard,” said Dr. Ned Calonge, medical director of the state health department, which will oversee the licensing process.
Calonge said regulation was something many in the profession long felt was needed. The effort gained urgency after a 1997 air-ambulance crash near South Santa Fe Drive in Littleton, which killed four people, including the patient.
The commission on accreditation is a private, South Carolina-based organization that sets standards for air ambulances, conducts periodic inspections and provides accreditation to operators it determines meet those standards. Air-ambulance providers pay a fee to be inspected, and those fees fund the commission’s operations.
Some companies resisted regulation, while others pushed for it, said Kathy Mayer, program director of Flight for Life Colorado, based at St. Anthony hospitals. Flight for Life, the nation’s oldest civilian helicopter ambulance operator, welcomes the standards, Mayer said.
“Unfortunately, patients have virtually no say in who transports them and what their qualifications and credentials are,” she said.
In Colorado, those qualifications and credentials will now encompass everything from the aircraft itself to the medical equipment on board and the training of the crew.
“It’s everything from how the mechanics calibrate their tools to how we train nurses,” Mayer said.
Many of the state’s 17 air-ambulance providers are voluntarily accredited by the commission already, Mayer said.
Sara Tracy, ambulance operations manager for Kaiser Permanente in Colorado, said Kaiser uses only accredited air ambulances. That may soon become a requirement within Kaiser nationwide, she said.
As an insurer, “it comforts me to know there are these standards in place,” she said. “It’s not a perfect magic bullet, but it makes you take a hard look at how you run your business.”
Staff writer Karen Augé can be reached at 303-820-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com.
