Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Factors affecting development of air ambulance base: A systematic review and thematic analysis

Authors

. Zahra Eskandari 1
. Zohreh Ghomian 2
. Sanaz Sohrabizadeh 3
. Ahmad Alibabaei 4
. Hojjat Ahmadinejad 5

1 Department of Health in Disasters and Emergencies, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Health in Disasters and Emergencies, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Workplace Health Promotion Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Center, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

4 Department of E‑Learning, Virtual School of Medical Education and Management, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

5 National Center for Strategic Research in Medical Education, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran

Abstract
Nowadays, air ambulances have been developed as part of advanced emergency medicine services
with many countries employing these services for transferring patients in usual and emergency
conditions. However, there are challenges concerning the optimal development of air ambulance
base. The present research aimed to identify factors affecting the development of air ambulance
bases to provide the opportunity of planning to improve the quality of emergency medical services.
In this systematic literature review, the peer-reviewed papers in fiv electronic databases, including
Medline through PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and ProQuest, as well as
available gray literature, were searched and selected. Two combinations of groups were used as
keywords: the Health Planning and development factor, air ambulance base. The focus was on
the PRISMA checklist, with no time limitations until from 1990 to January 2020. Finally, through
5156 related citations, 20 articles were included. Descriptive and thematic content analyses were
evaluated. The factors affecting the development of the air ambulance base were classified in fiv
categories and 14 subcategories as follows: navigation criteria, process indications and standards,
sociopolitical factors, and current situation of the area. There are few studies on factors affecting the
development of air ambulance bases. It is necessary to apply multidimensional models to consider
various factors for development. The development of high populated cities, events and ceremonies
with a crowd of participants, and increase of human-made disasters are making these services
increasingly indispensable.

Keywords

Air ambulance
air ambulance base locations
base
development
emergency helicopters
helicopter emergency medical service
systematic review
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Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 11, Issue 7
August 2021
Pages 1-11

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