CHAMPIONS IN SAFETY. CHAMPIONS IN CARE.
Align Safety Interests.
What is interest misalignment? Differing perceptions of, exposure to, and anticipation of, risks and rewards.
Flying all the stakeholders together in the helicopter aligns risk. So does carrying something of concern to those outside the helicopter. But taking a director’s or mechanic’s spouse along on HEMS missions is impractical and unethical, and wouldn’t really help in event of a crash anyway, so we have to find alternatives.
Most interest misalignments are correctable, by spreading risk and benefits appropriately. When everyone involved or in a position of control has skin in the game, risk management practices improve, and risk products (insurance) develop and become sophisticated.
One example of interest misalignment occurs when the helicopter is insured for more than the entire crew it carries. How can such an interest misalignment be corrected? In this example, abundant life and disability insurance on each crew member at operator expense. With appropriate insurance in place, in event of a crash, the HEMS operator’s exposure becomes shared economic pain with the insurer and underwriter, distributing needed financial support for the crew’s surviving beneficiaries.
When interests inside and outside the helicopter are aligned, the crew, their families, and the HEMS operator share a commitment to, and interest in, the HEMS crew’s survival and welfare.
Providing HEMS professionals with $2.5 million in death benefits, and wage-replacement disability coverage, would increase the price of HEMS transport by about 2%. And HEMS operators price their services however they please, usually about the price of a new car or the down payment on a decent home. There are other opportunities to align risk, but inadequate death and disability coverage is a glaringly obvious and overdue first step.
How are YOU paying your HEMS operator’s cost of sustainable, defensible operation?
CHAMP 