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Air medical transportation plays a critical role in the healthcare industry, providing critical patient care while ensuring timely and safe transportation of patients to medical facilities. As the leading provider of medical transport services across the U.S., Air Methods has been leveraging the power of data to enhance its services and improve patient outcomes. One of the key tools in our arsenal is the Ground & Air Medical Quality Transport™ (GAMUT) quality improvement collaborative.
GAMUT™ is a data analytics tool that enables our company to monitor, analyze, and assess performance using quality metrics specific to medical transportation. It is a unique initiative that brings together over 350 critical care transport programs of all sizes, providing a collaborative platform for sharing data and best practices. Air Methods submits data to GAMUT™ every six months. After submitting, the program sets parameters and monitors the data to guarantee accuracy and integrity. This helps to prevent data manipulation and ensures that the metrics are reliable and standardized across the air medical industry.
The key benefits of GAMUT™ are in its ability to create an industry benchmark, allowing critical care transport providers to assess their performance in comparison to other programs and pinpoint areas for improvement. In the past, providers have been hesitant to share their quality data in fear of losing their competitive edge. GAMUT™ has changed this dynamic and brought about a culture of collaboration and data-sharing, leading to continuous improvement of patient care and safety.
Providing medical care to patients is complex, especially for the critically ill or injured patients that Air Methods treats and transports. “In order to judge the quality of care, we need to measure our clinical performance,” said David FE Stuhlmiller, MD, FACEP, FAEMS, CMTE, an Air Methods Physician Advisor. “While every critical care transport service strives to continually improve their own performance, and should continue to do so, before GAMUT™, critical care transport services had no idea if their clinical performance was better or worse than that of other services.”
GAMUT™ is championed by the Air Medical Physician Association (AMPA) as the first community-wide attempt to benchmark specific clinical performance measures in the critical care transport setting. A benchmark is the standard against which a measurement can be compared. In healthcare, ideally the benchmark represents an evidence-based best practice.
In 2013, AMPA requested transport medicine programs to submit their quality metrics and then vote on their importance. Representatives from the medical transport community gathered in Denver to finalize the first 22 GAMUT™ metrics for benchmarking. Air Methods, with five clinical leaders involved actively participated in this effort.
Air Methods immediately contributed data to 14 of the original 22 metrics and continues to support GAMUT™ by submitting data and participating in metric revision discussions.
Air Methods has witnessed the tangible benefits firsthand. The metrics and trends identified through GAMUT™ are used to make annual changes to clinical education and training programs. This enables Air Methods to stay ahead of the curve and deliver best-in-class patient care.
The metrics may seem like mere numbers on paper, but they have a real impact on people’s lives. Kelly Miller, VP Clinical Services, highlights that “these metrics are best practices that lead to safer patient care and more positive outcomes for our patients.” By keeping a sharp eye on the data, we can remain committed to delivering exceptional critical care services that improve patient outcomes and ultimately save lives.
There is value in assessing and comparing flight programs from around the world, not just at Air Methods, in order to enhance overall quality. “The averages across the board have been moving up because programs have been able to benchmark themselves against other similar operating bases,” said Miller.
GAMUT™ is an invaluable program that is driving significant improvements in the medical transportation industry. By sharing data, collaborating, and benchmarking against industry standards, providers can deliver safer, more efficient, and more effective life-saving services. Air Methods’ partnership with GAMUT™ is a testament to its commitment to delivering quality care and staying ahead of the curve. Learn more about GAMUT or learn more about Air Methods commitment to clinical excellence.
Our new podcast, AMPED (Air Methods Prehospital Education), is back this week with a new installment. The podcast, which was launched last month, is designed for prehospital and in-hospital care providers and sheds light on the unique and challenging clinical scenarios faced by our emergency medical crews. It is a first-of-its-kind platform in which air medical and in-hospital clinicians can share their stories from the frontlines and learn from each other’s unique experiences in providing lifesaving care.
In this week’s episode, airing today, Joe, Phil, and John are joined by critical care physicians Brian Fuller MD MSCI FCCM and Amjad Musleh MD to discuss a case study involving the complicated “mix shock” state their patient is dying from, and the treatments they chose to provide.
Critical questions around the cause of the patient’s shock and why it might be fatal arise when typical solutions for shock aren’t working and the patient is dying. Listen in as they tackle preparing a systematic approach based on a fundamental understanding of the types of shock, figuring out the cause of shock, and choosing the right treatment.
The podcast is hosted by Joe Hill; Hawnwan “Phil” Moy, MD, Medical Director for ARCH, Air Methods Illinois and Missouri; and John Wilmas, MD, Medical Director for ARCH, Air Methods Illinois and Missouri. Collectively, the three hosts bring decades of experience in emergency medical services and an array of diverse perspectives to the table.
In the first episode, the hosts interviewed a flight nurse about a case in which a patient was thrown from a motorcycle at 105 mph and needed emergency transport. The nurse recounts the unique details of the case and his medical decision-making process that ensured the patient received the highest quality care while in transport to the hospital.
AMPED is available on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more. To listen to the podcast and to see available streaming options, visit airmethods.com/newsroom/. To join the conversation, use the hashtag #AMPEDpod on social media.
Last week, we announced the launch of our Air Methods Prehospital Education (“AMPED”) podcast, which is designed for prehospital and in-hospital care providers and sheds light on the unique and challenging clinical scenarios faced by our emergency medical crews.
“Medicine is an ongoing educational and evolutionary process,” said Joe Hill, RN, clinical director for Air Methods and co-creator of AMPED. “AMPED serves as a first-of-its-kind platform in which air medical and in-hospital clinicians can share their stories from the frontlines and learn from each other’s unique experiences in providing lifesaving care.”
Air Methods’ crews encounter extraordinary obstacles on a daily basis that require significant expertise and the ability to handle highly stressful situations. They often serve as the lifeline for patients in rural areas without access to critical or emergent care. By providing a lens into the air medical profession, AMPED aims to foster greater understanding and respect among healthcare providers of all specialties.
The podcast is hosted by Joe Hill; Hawnwan “Phil” Moy, MD, Medical Director for Arch, Air Methods Illinois and Missouri; and John Wilmas, MD, Medical Director for Arch, Air Methods Illinois and Missouri. Collectively, the three hosts bring decades of experience in emergency medical services and an array of diverse perspectives to the table.
In the first episode, the hosts interview a flight nurse about a case in which a patient was catapulted from a motorcycle at 105 mph and needed emergency transport. The nurse recounts the unique details of the case and his medical decision-making process to ensure this patient received the highest quality care while in transport to the hospital.
AMPED is available on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more. To listen to the podcast and to see available streaming options, visit airmethods.com/newsroom/. The second episode is slated for release in March 2021. To join the conversation, use the hashtag #AMPEDpod on social media.
Our CEO, JaeLynn Williams, opened up about her advocacy for saving lives and her ambitious goal for Air Methods to be 100% in-network with health insurance companies on this week’s episode of the HIT Like a Girl Podcast.Williams spoke with hosts Joy Rios and Robin Roberts about the unconventional path that led her to where she is today, her belief that patients shouldn’t have to worry about the cost of an emergency airlift, and integrating patient data from emergency flights to allow for more connectivity across the care continuum.The mission of the HIT Like a Girl podcast is to amplify women who are making major contributions to healthcare, technology, or the intersection of health IT.Here are a few highlights from the interview:“If I had a magic wand tomorrow and I could make people (insurance companies) come to the table and negotiate, that would be tremendous. I think the second thing would be automation. So, working on things like bringing NLP to coding and connectivity and really augmenting artificial intelligence and deep data analytics. The air medical industry could really benefit from that and I believe it is a critical component of healthcare.”“In the EMS world we use a pretty standard EHR system, but I think a challenge that exists, or the opportunity that exists, is that they’re not really fully integrated or fully interface with the hospital system EHRs. Bringing those two universes together and having that be a seamless interface and potentially even a bi-directional interface as appropriate would help facilitate some of what I see as opportunity to measure outcomes better and leakage better.”Additionally, Jaelynn offered advice to women in the industry: “Care about what you are doing professionally, look for areas to improve and don’t self-select away from opportunities because you don’t feel ‘fit’ for them.”Check out the full episode here.