Sky-high safety? A qualitative study of physicians’ experiences of patient safety in Norwegian helicopter emergency services (January 2024)

Summary

Patients treated and transported by Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) are prone to both flight and medical hazards, but incident reporting differs substantially between flight organisations and healthcare, and the extent of patient safety incidents is still unclear. This study in the Journal of Patient Safety is based on in-depth interviews with eight experienced Norwegian HEMS physicians from four different bases from February to July 2020. The study aimed to explore the physicians’ experience with incident reporting and their perceived areas of risk in HEMS.

The authors concluded that sparse, informal and fragmented incident reporting provides a poor overview of patient safety risks in HEMS. A focus on organisational factors and system responsibility is needed to further improve patient safety in HEMS, alongside research on environmental and contextual factors.