Date: 201712
Local time of day: 0601-1200
Location: ZDV.ARTCC, CO
Light: Daylight
Aircraft: B737-800
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Cruise
Airspace: Class A ZDV
ATC / advisory: Center ZDV
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Captain; Pilot Flying
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Human factors: Workload; Time Pressure; Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Training / Qualification
Anomaly: Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Illness / Injury
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: In-flight
Result: Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition
Contributing factors: Company Policy; Human Factors; Procedure
Primary problem: Company Policy

Narrative: It is too much trouble and takes too much time to handle a medical emergency in flight. This has been an ongoing issue for the 18 years I have been here. On this particular flight; there were no deviations; however the trouble and taking one Pilot out of flying the airplane for the 20-30 minutes it takes to resolve the problem is just too long and adds a lot of extra risk. On this particular event; the Flight Attendants reported a woman had passed out; but was conscious and unresponsive. She had a history of diabetes and a Nurse Practitioner was working on her. Not ready for [medical service] yet. Five minutes go by and they are ready to contact [medical service]. I tell the First Officer to take care of that while I fly and take care of ATC while monitoring the situation. We contact ARINC after a couple of tries; it's a little garbled because of somebody else on the frequency. Takes another five minutes before [medical service] and Dispatch are up on the radio and ready.Of course the Flight Attendants are not ready yet and it takes another couple of minutes. Finally; they are ready to talk. They relay the important information in starts and stops because of the garbled comm plus the Flight Attendants are not good at operating the radio (this cannot be fixed because of the infrequency of these events and once a year training is just not going to do it). Finally; the information gets relayed to [medical service] and then there is a minutes-long blank time. This is because the [medical service] radio Operator has to find a Doctor; brief the Doctor; and get the Doctor on the radio. The Doc asks for some of the same information we just gave; also with the same communications problems. Several repeats later; the Doctor has the information and tells us what to do. We sign off which takes a couple of minutes; make sure the Flight Attendants know what to do (another couple of minutes); make sure EMS is going to meet us (another couple of minutes).By the time the First Officer is done with all of that we are well into our descent and we are way behind. Due to our lengthy briefing requirements; it is difficult to catch up; but we do. We land without incident. The point to this whole synopsis is it takes way too long; and is way too difficult to solve this problem. For a long haul flight; it's not that big a deal; on the shorter flights; it's just too much. There has to be a better way.




Synopsis: A Pilot reported their inefficient procedures for handling an inflight medical emergency distracted the pilots from flying the aircraft.