Helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) is of vital importance for Slovenia, because it enables quick treatment of injured persons and patients, which ultimately saves lives. Despite that there are a lot of inefficiencies in the Slovenian HEMS system. With qualitative and quantitative research of key parameters, such as approach time, helicopter fleet, the amount of country’s surface one HEMS base covers on average, I analyzed and compared HEMS systems from Slovenia, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. I have come to a conclusion that there are a lot of areas of HEMS in Slovenia where change would be necessary in order to optimize HEMS better and to be on the same level as the top HEMS systems in Europe. HEMS in Slovenia would work better with an additional HEMS base, use of purpose-made helicopters, different formation of the HEMS rescue team and under the supervision of a private, non-profit organization and a private helicopter operator.
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