A Retrospective Geospatial Simulation Study of Helicopter Emergency Medical Services' Potential Time Benefit Over Ground Ambulance Transport in Northern South Africa.

The current study demonstrated that there was rarely a time benefit for actual primary emergency responses when HEMS was used compared with simulated driving time of GEMS transport. Using a nonsimultaneous dispatch model, a time benefit only occurs when the driving distance from the incident site to the hospital is greater than 119 km. There is an urgent need to critically evaluate HEMS utilization in the South African context.