Medevac pilot was told crew didn't 'want to drive'

The emergency operator who dispatched a medevac helicopter to Waldorf on a mission that ended in a fatal crash told the pilot that ambulance crews called for the aircraft because they "never want to drive to the hospital."

That, along with the revelation that the case was initially assigned an even lower medical priority than first reported, raises new questions about whether the flight was necessary - and whether Maryland and other states generally are using medical helicopters excessively. A report earlier this year found that nearly half the patients flown to hospitals in Maryland are discharged in less than a day, and the September crash was one of 26 fatal crashes of medical helicopters nationwide over the past six years.

On tapes of the conversations between dispatchers and emergency workers on the night of Sept. 28, a 911 operator in Waldorf describes the patients involved in an auto accident as being "Category D," meaning that neither the patients nor their vehicle met the criteria for helicopter transport. Instead, both were being flown based on the judgment of emergency workers at the scene, though state officials say paramedics later assigned the patients a more urgent assessment.

When medevac pilot Stephen H. Bunker, who died in the crash, asked the State Police dispatcher where he was being asked to fly, the dispatcher replied, "Charles County. Waldorf. Where else? These guys never want to drive to the hospital."

Later in the call the dispatcher says: "As soon as I heard Charles County, I knew it was going to be Waldorf. Because those guys never want to drive to the hospital."

State officials released the tapes Thursday.

Dr. Robert R. Bass, executive director of the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems, said yesterday that officials reviewed records of Maryland's medevac use after listening to the tape. He said they found that as a percentage of population each Southern Maryland county uses helicopters roughly the same amount - more than urban counties close to trauma centers, like Baltimore and Anne Arundel, but less than the most rural counties on the Eastern Shore, he said.

"We were disturbed" by the comments on the dispatch tape, Bass said. "But looking at the numbers, we can't find any way to substantiate the belief that Charles County, or Waldorf, is an excessive user of helicopter transport."