Hospital and medical pads are the largest category of helipad in the United States: 2,970 of them, or about 52 percent of every heliport the FAA records. They are also the ones most people picture when they think of a helipad, and the ones you are least likely to be allowed to use.
- 2,970
- Hospital and medical pads
- 52%
- Of all US heliports
- 5
- Open to the public
- 45 ft
- Median landing area
Built for the ambulance, not for the visitor
Only 5 of these 2,970 pads carry a public-use designation. The rest are private use, which means landing needs the owner's permission in advance, and hospitals grant it for the work the pad exists to do: air ambulance flights carrying a patient or a transplant team. A charter operator will not plan a passenger flight into a hospital pad, and asking one to is the fastest way to hear no.
If what you need is medical transport, that is a different service from charter. Air ambulance operators fly with clinical crews, carry the equipment a patient needs in flight, and hold the arrangements with hospitals that let them use these pads. A charter aircraft carries passengers and has none of that. The distinction matters more than the aircraft type does, and it is worth naming plainly before anyone books the wrong thing.
What a hospital pad is actually like
They are small. The median landing area measures about 45 feet on its longest side, 1,585 of them come in under 50 feet, and only 128 reach 100 feet or more. That is sized for the light and medium twins air ambulance operators fly, which is one reason a larger aircraft cannot simply divert to one.
Surfaces are overwhelmingly hard: 2,037 are concrete and 402 asphalt, with 116 recorded as rooftop decks. A rooftop pad carries constraints a ground pad does not, since everything about approach, departure and weight has to account for the building underneath it. Lighting is recorded on 1,817 of the pads, which follows from the fact that emergencies do not keep daylight hours. Only 6 record a landing fee at all.
Altitude is the other variable worth knowing about. The highest of them, St Vincent General Hospital at Leadville, CO, sits at 10,175 feet. Thin air gives a rotor less to work with, so a mountain hospital pad on a warm afternoon can limit what an aircraft is able to lift. The same physics shapes charter flying in mountain country, which is covered in the Colorado mountain corridor.
Where they are
Hospital pads follow population and trauma networks rather than wealth or terrain. These states hold the most.
- Texas 273
- Florida 188
- Ohio 146
- Illinois 141
- Pennsylvania 136
- California 133
- Kentucky 87
- North Carolina 86
- Missouri 84
- Wisconsin 78
- Alabama 77
- Minnesota 77
Common questions
Do all hospitals have a helipad?
No. There are 2,970 hospital and medical helipads in the current FAA cycle, against several thousand hospitals in the country, so many receive air ambulances at a nearby airport or a prepared landing zone instead of an on-site pad.
Can you land a private helicopter at a hospital?
Not as a rule. Only 5 of the 2,970 hospital pads on the FAA's list are designated public use. The rest are private use, built and staffed for air ambulance work, and a charter operator will not plan a flight into one. Medical transport is a separate service with its own crews and equipment.
How big is a hospital helipad?
Smaller than most people expect. The median landing area is about 45 feet and 1,585 of them measure under 50 feet on their longest side. Only 128 reach 100 feet. They are sized for the light and medium twins air ambulance operators fly, not for large aircraft.
Are hospital helipads lit for night landings?
Most are. The FAA records lighting on 1,817 of the 2,970 hospital pads, which matters because air ambulance work does not keep daylight hours. Where the file records nothing, that is an absence of data rather than proof of an unlit pad.
What is the highest hospital helipad in the United States?
St Vincent General Hospital at Leadville, CO, sits at 10,175 feet. Altitude thins the air a rotor has to work with, so a pad that high limits what an aircraft can carry on a warm day.
Related
Source: FAA National Airspace System Resource file, cycle effective 3 September 2026, reissued every 28 days. Categories are derived from the FAA's own hospital and medical flags. Orientation only, not for navigation.