UCHealth's LifeLine Team Transports Coronavirus Patients In Air Ambulance
LOVELAND, Colo. (CBS4) – Patients confirmed to have coronavirus can now be transported via air at some Colorado hospitals. UCHealth's "LifeLine" team at Medical Center of the Rockies was the first air ambulance in Colorado to be able to fly in tight quarters with patients sick with the virus.
The team has drastically altered their operations to accommodate the necessary protocols for transporting those ill with COVID-19, most of which include deep cleaning and wearing personal protective equipment, or PPE. After sharing their methods with a similar team in Colorado Springs, UCHealth's LifeLine teams have flown more than a dozen COVID-19 patients to area hospitals without concern.
"Right when the call drops dispatch will notify us we need to take precautions," said Hilary Fischer, Flight Nurse with the LifeLine team at MCR.
Fischer told CBS4's Dillon Thomas those with LifeLine, both air and ground teams, are prioritizing clean transportation methods. When a team has reason to believe a patient is positive, or showing symptoms, most switch out of their regular uniforms and into PPE gowns and masks.
"It is so different," Fischer said. "We are just used to moving really fast as a flight team. To slow down and be careful and cautious with these folks is what it takes."
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Since MCR's LifeLine flight crew started flying COVID-19 patients, other flight teams and ground crews in ambulances have adopted similar protocols. In Loveland, the LifeLine ground and air teams have combined to transport at least 45 COVID-19 patients. Across UCHealth hospitals in the Loveland, Denver and Colorado Springs areas, more than 168 have been transported.
"Nobody wanted to do this unless it was safe," Fischer said. "Now that we've made a safe process for doing it, there's really no reason not to."
In the LifeLine ambulance, curtains are draped around the interior while transporting a COVID-19 patient. Upon arrival, those curtains, and the PPE outfits staff used, are sprayed down with a liquid that kills any possible trace of the virus.
For the flight team, because curtains can't be used during flight, everything inside the craft is cleaned by hand after a transport. Fischer said pre-COVID cleanings took 15 minutes each. Now, due to the extreme cleaning measures, the crew is grounded for at least an hour between flights to clean the aircraft.
"We are spraying everything. We are airing everything out, going piece by piece and spraying everything," Fischer said.
The CDC's guidelines of keeping six-foot distances from others is impossible in the LifeLine helicopter.
"The whole fuselage is maybe six feet across," Fischer said. "The patient is directly in front of the care provider. So, if they are positive, and are aerosolizing the virus, the provider is in really close quarters with them."
Patients with COVID-19 symptoms are required to wear a mask while in-flight. Those who are on a ventilator are provided oxygen through a filtered system which is regularly cleaned.
"Any air that passes through the ventilator circuit in the patient gets cleaned out," Fischer said.
With patience, attention to detail, determination and a little help from aerosolized hydrogen peroxide Fischer said those who are sick can still rely on the LifeLine team.
"They need to take care of themselves and know we are ready to take care of them," Fischer said.
