AirCARE1 International

When a person is having a life threatening emergency, medical evacuation is often needed. Many times we witness the air ambulances landing at serious car accidents and other traumatic instances. If you ever encounter the need for one of these emergency services, there are some things you need to know.

As you are getting ready for flight, you may want someone to be along with you. Depending on the level of your medical condition up to two individuals can be flown with you. You need to remain calm and understanding if the medical personnel determine it isn’t safe for you.

Determining the type of medical situation for the air ambulance company is essential as well. There are three basic conditions that may warrant the use of medical evacuation.

Basic Life Support: With this, the patient will normally only have a minor medical emergency, but they will likely need oxygen and IV access. Usually they remain stable, but that could change quickly thus warranting the need for an air ambulance.

Advanced Life Support: While still in a stable condition there is a higher requirement for IV support as well as the need for infusions. Because of the extra attention required and need to get to a facility quicker, the patient would require an air ambulance.

Critical Care: This patient is in dire need of care. They are likely unstable and need constant work done on them, IV’s are constantly being handled and there may be a need for serious ventilation. There may even be a need for some invasive procedures.

In all three scenarios the air ambulance company will help to determine if you need to be airlifted. In some occurrences, a standard ambulance would be called in place of this evacuation tool. If you are a healthcare provider, they will also be able to help you with determining if the patient does need to be airlifted.

This brings up another important point – when you decide to airlift a patient never use a broker. Instead, by going directly through the company you save money for the responsible party for the trip. It might be the hospital, insurance company or the patient. When you deal with a broker, their bottom line is important and what they charge normally only covers the basic needs of the patient.

Keep in mind that the entire set of personnel on the flight is dedicated to helping you. Never attack or get angry when they are trying to help you. Instead, remain calm. They understand the pain you might be in and are dedicated to providing you with excellent care.

There is nothing to worry about when flying in the air ambulance either. The pilots are required to receive additional training in medical terminology, how to provide the patient care at the highest level, and flight physiology as well. This allows communication to remain intact while performing the basics you might need and with twenty thousand hours of flight time under their belt before they become certified, you never have to worry about a novice pilot.

During the flight you will be asked to remain as still as possible. This helps to prevent any turbulence that might be caused by unnecessary movement, and can prove to be critical. Be sure to follow the directions of the flight personnel exactly as you are asked to.

Keep in mind that an air ambulance is a serious form of medical transportation and not every situation you encounter will demand the use of it. Take time to review the information provided, and contact a company you can trust to make sure that your specific situation should be handled by an air ambulance for medical evacuation.

When you are choosing a medevac, or an air ambulance for someone in your family, it’s not an easy choice to make. Medevac is generally used in cases of great need and that means it is not something that many of us know a great deal about. Choosing is difficult because we don’t have anything to compare them to. To help you, this post will give you a brief check list of what you should be looking for.

Qualifications

• When you are selecting an air ambulance service the one thing you will want to take into consideration is the type of aircraft that is involved. You’re looking for an aircraft that has a wide doorway, to eliminate problems with loading and unloading the patient, as well as one which will have a larger fuel capacity in order to minimize the need for stops to refuel.

• It goes without saying that having the right equipment on board should be SOP, but you may be shocked by how many providers simply don’t. Making sure that the aircraft is uses strictly for medevac is important and that the equipment isn’t sidelined so that the aircraft can be used for other things.Many companies use their medevac craft for chartering at times when they do not have patients to transport. This kind of craft is probably best to avoid, since you want to assure that the materials that your family member or loved one needs are there on board, waiting for them.

• Select a medevac service that employs two pilots at a time rather than just one. If something were to take place with one pilot, the results could be disastrous. Likewise, make sure that there are adequate medical staff on the aircraft and that they are well versed in in-flight medicine and medical procedures. Some wonderful medical personnel exist out there who simply don’t know enough about how to practice medicine in the air. Make sure that the staff on the medevac that you use are well versed in flight medicine and know exactly what to do about any emergency that might arise.

Services

• Look for med-evac companies that will permit you to take a travel companion with your family member. When there is a medical emergency that requires you to be airlifted, it’s going to be much less stressful for the patient as well as immediate family members if at least one person can fly with them. Find out up front how much they charge to take extra passengers. Some air ambulance services do not charge for an additional person and this is a service that is literally priceless.In fact, there are even those companies which encourage and permit the passenger to bring along small caged pets if there is a need for it. Make sure that you check out the company policy about animals and travel companions if you think that it will help to alleviate the stress of the patient.

• The best provider of medevac or air ambulance services will offer you bed to bed service. They land their patient, the medical personnel travels with them to the hospital and offers a report to the receiving facility. In this way the patient is assured a smooth transition to the new care provider and continuity of care is assured for the patient.

Every medevac company is unique and each offers different types of services. It is important that the patient is at ease with the personnel as well as the services they will be receiving, but it is also important that the family is too. Take a good look at the qualifications and services of each medevac company prior to settling on one to transport you or your loved ones.