Kawakami village with a population of 4,700 is located in the easternmost corner of Nagano Prefecture. It borders on Gunma, Saitama, and Yamanashi Prefectures. In the village, there are only two medical facilities, our Kawakami Clinic and Kimura Branch Clinic. None of them have any inpatients' wards. Therefore, patients who need hospitalization without delay have to be transported in an ambulance car to the Saku Central Hpspital, a general hospital about 35 km from our clinic.In order to transport the emergency patients quickly, we began to used a helicopter on July 2005. A total of 75 cases who were transported by ambulance or helicopter from our clinic to the Saku Central Hospital from July 2005 to December 2006 were the subjects of the present study. The hour they were sent, their conditions, disease severity and transport from were examined, based on the reports filed by the committee which is supposed to judge disease severity, emergency degree and so on. It was found that 17 cases, which occupied 23% of the total number of transported cases, were transported by helicopter. Patients with internal diseases made up 76% and patients requiring surgical treatment 24%. Those patients with mild, moderate, serious and dangerous illnesses accounted for 12%, 41%, 29% and 18%, respectively. One case died three days after hospitalization. The other cases were discharged or transferred to other hospitals within two months. The rate at which we used the helicopter was low, so we could not say it was a common means of transport. In the cases of external trauma, it was difficult to decide which means of transport should be used, ambulance or helicopter.Further examination and discussion with the staff members of the emargency services and support hospital are needed to improve the emergency medical services as primary care.
Clinic ; Ambulances ; Central brand of multivitamin with minerals ; Review of ; Severity of illness, NOS