Canfield, OH, February 16, 2009 - According to a recent survey conducted by ThinkThroughTools, it is evident there is much skepticism as well as hope that the NTSB hearings will improve Safety & AMRM (Air Medical Resource Management) for Helicopter EMS (HEMS).

70.7 percent believed the questions of the Technical Panels and Board of Inquiry served to surface core Safety & AMRM issues. But only 15.4 percent believed the outcomes of the hearings would decrease errors of consequence. 75.3 percent believed many questions did not discriminate enough to reveal organizations and individuals engaged in High-Yield (Best) Practices compared to those engaged in Low-Yield (Worst) Practices.

"The NTSB and all those engaged in the hearings are to be commended because energy and focus are being devoted to mission crucial factors affecting the HEMS community. Of all the surveys ThinkThroughTools has conducted, this one clearly generated the most mature, thought-through, and passionate comments," stated ThinkThroughTools CEO, Rich Obertots.

Some comments from respondents:

• "Some positive facts were mentioned. Overall, I believe the NTSB learned that most in HEMS are devoted to the mission, and trying to be safe and practice AMRM."
• "Some programs continue to compromise flight safety for the sake of revenue."
• "AMRM is broken. I have not seen a program yet that adequately address the issues AMRM was supposed to address."

ThinkThroughTools conducted this survey earlier in the month to discover what the Air Medical Transport arena thought of the recent NTSB HEMS Hearings. By surveying a sampling of the industry, ThinkThroughTools hoped to better understand from those who attended in person or experienced the real-time Web casts how the hearings impacted their organizations' culture of Safety & AMRM.

"ThinkThroughTools’ gratitude goes to the respondents who clearly are devoted to getting out and at the truths and taking HEMS to new levels of Safety and AMRM," said Obertots.

The survey also asked participants what they would want the NTSB to further investigate as a follow-up to the hearings. These responses will be submitted to the NTSB. **

Among the comments to be sent to the NTSB:

• Why are NVGs not available? Why is money more important than lives? Why aren't we following other countries and demanding IFR twins?
• The FAA allows the Company to throw too many pilots under the bus and the FAA never holds the Company responsible for anything.
• Pilot qualifications, training and experience.
• The effects of competition on the safety culture of HEMS operations.

Survey Highlights

• 28.6 percent of the respondents are Rotor Wing Pilots; 26.5 percent are Air Medical Program Managers, Directors, Base Managers/Supervisors, Aviation Site Managers, Medical Directors or CEOs. 25.5 percent are Communication Specialists, Flight Paramedics, Flight Nurses and Flight Respiratory Therapists.
• 14.3 percent attended the NTSB hearings while 81.6 percent watched the daily Web casts.
• 66.3 percent will encourage their staff (peers) to watch the archived Web casts when they are available.
• 58.4 percent believe that highly important positive facts and truths about HEMS Safety & AMRM performance were revealed.
• 63.1 percent believe that gaps and areas needing urgent attention for HEMS Safety & AMRM were revealed.
• Only 35.4 percent believe that sustainable improvements in HEMS Safety and AMRM will occur ultimately because of the NTSB hearings.

Obertots observed, "I encourage all stakeholders in HEMS to devote the time to review our survey. Pay particular attention to the comments. The hearings were helpful; some essential facts were revealed, however those who participated were only a fraction of our arena. Important clues and actions to help decrease errors of consequence are put forth by the survey respondents. Who will see these – who will listen – who will act with sustained focus is the question."

Other Comments from Respondents

• "Ultimately safety is not the responsibility of the FAA/NTSB but up to the individual programs and flight crews. Programs NEED to promote a safety conscious atmosphere."
• "It was a good start. The focus should be more on the organizational aspects of this industry. We have a medical side driving the aviation operational side. "Customers" are really the operators and the air carriers are really their agents."
• "This is a process that should be done bi-annually. If not done by the NTSB, then the FAA or industry. Valuable information is shared and the industry is smarter and safer for this forum and exchange of vital information."

Next Steps

ThinkThroughTools believes that the spirit and intent of NTSB and most participants were to reveal failure modes and effects to be mitigated as well as identify High-Yield Safety and AMRM practices to be implemented uniformly nationwide, presently and in the future.

"Is this just another cycling of the same process? Will the NTSB HEMS hearings represent a sentinel moment or a blip on the radar screen only to decay over time?" added Obertots. "The good news is that many in the HEMS community are enforcing High-Yield Safety and AMRM practices daily. Many are far beyond all recommendations that have been requested and are operating with robust focus on Safety and AMRM first. ThinkThroughTools will continue our efforts with our above industry standard deployment of 365 Safety AMRM™ on-demand software and we will continue to support and improve our software being used by leading air medical transport programs who are doing the right things - right now!"
** To see the comments provided to the NTSB and results of the post-NTSB Hearings survey, please visit www.ThinkThroughTools.com.
About ThinkThroughTools: ThinkThroughTools provides on-demand Safety, AMRM and Outreach management software for leading Air Medical Transport providers. For more information, visit www.ThinkThroughTools.com.

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