Finnish medical helicopters now select their own missions

Finnhems medical helicopter crews are increasingly choosing their own missions rather than waiting for alerts from emergency centres or field commanders, according to a report by Yle.

The crews monitor a shared field command system (KEJO) used by authorities, which displays regional ambulances and emergency calls. This allows helicopters to respond more quickly, transport patients directly to final treatment locations, and free up local ambulances for other emergencies.

In 2023, helicopter units self-selected around 300 missions; last year, the number rose to over 500. So far this year, Finnhems helicopters have completed 5,241 missions, with 1,588 initiated without emergency centre alerts.

Finnhems medical director Pauli Vuorinen notes that Finland’s system is unusual compared to other countries, where emergency centre dispatchers typically assign tasks to medical units. The KEJO system, piloted in 2020 and now in use across all pre-hospital care units, enables this proactive approach.

Regional differences exist in mission selection. For example, the Kouvola and Seinäjoki bases account for the lack of nearby university hospitals, while the Turku base adapts to archipelago conditions. Vuorinen acknowledges that individual dispatchers may also have varying approaches to selecting missions.

To standardise operations, Finnhems hopes to introduce an alert coordinator. The newest helicopter base in Kouvola, operational since January, has already shown a shift toward more frequent deployments, even for less critical cases.

Data from the first half of this year shows the Southeast Finland helicopter assisted 147 patients in Kymenlaakso and 22 in South Karelia, reflecting earlier concerns about coverage in the latter region.

Antti Kämäräinen, the responsible physician at the Kouvola base, emphasises the need to maximise the use of taxpayer-funded helicopter services rather than reserving them solely for the most extreme emergencies.