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HEMS overtriage in burn injuries
Burn injury management by Dutch physician-staffed HEMS: Findings from the HEMS-BURNS cohort and National Trauma Registry
Burns · 2026-08-17 · Added 16 October 2026
Nine-year Dutch HEMS burn cohort found nearly half of physician-staffed helicopter dispatches for burns were cancelled, mostly for minor injuries, and HEMS-specific interventions were performed in only 33.6% of completed missions.
- Study type
- Cohort
- Design
- Descriptive retrospective cohort
- Participants
- 976 HEMS dispatches for suspected burns plus 879 registry patients, Rotterdam 2015–2023
- Main finding
- 46.6% of dispatches were cancelled (63.3% for minor injury); interventions occurred in 33.6% of non-cancelled dispatches, lower in children (14.2%) and scald burns (14.6%) than adults (43.5%) and flame burns (45.6%)
- Caveat
- Descriptive single-HEMS study; intervention rates were used as a proxy for benefit without a comparison group
- Bottom line
- Context only
Why it matters in Australia (Low relevance). Physician-staffed HEMS model — most Australian burn patients are handled by road crews and adult/paediatric retrieval services, so the dispatch-criteria debate reads across only loosely.
Learning goal
Weigh the value of specialist retrieval dispatch for burn injuries against overtriage and cancelled missions.
More
- Topic: Trauma
- Daily scan: 16 October 2026
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