An assessment of the prevalence of pathogenic microorganisms in the rotor wing air ambulance: One program's findings

Hospital-acquired infections (HAI) continue to pose a serious risk to patients. The rate of these infections has remained steady, despite aggressive efforts to stem the spread of microbial transmission through awareness, aseptic techniques, and handwashing. Much has been written on the role of the practitioner, the hospital, and the spread of HAI. However, little attention has been given to the potential role that the out-of-hospital transport vehicle and medical crew might play in this process.This study was performed at one hospital-based rotor-wing air ambulance (RWAA) program to determine whether the potential for HAI transmission by the RWAA program existed and whether the effectiveness of the flight teams' cleaning process was adequate to control the spread of potentially harmful microorganisms. The results showed that large numbers of microbes remained on the surfaces of the transport vehicle even after initial cleaning. This demonstrates that the RWAA is a potential route of transmission between the flight team and patient or through patient self-inoculation. Although the results of this study are limited to a single site, it shows that the potential for pathogen transmission clearly exists, and more attention should be placed on limiting the RWAA's role in this process.