We invite you to join everyone at MedFlight911 air ambulance in celebrating 2013 EMS Week, from May 19 through May 25. This year’s EMS Week theme is “EMS: One Mission. One Team.” The goal of EMS Week (which was first celebrated in 1974) is to publicize the vital contributions and work of emergency medical services providers – including paramedics, nurses and others – across the U.S.

EMS is a vital, though sometimes overlooked, part of the healthcare delivery system in the United States. Here are some key facts about EMS (all courtesy of the Virtual EMS Museum).

• The word “ambulance” comes from the Latin word “ambulare,” which means to walk or move around; the term is a reference to early medical care, when patients were moved by lifting or wheeling.
• The first hospital-based ambulance service was established by Commercial Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1865. Equipment carried by early ambulances included a stomach pump, morphine, and brandy.
• In 1897, Dr. Emily Dunning Barringer became the first female ambulance surgeon; she was also the first woman to be admitted to an internship program in the state of New York, serving at Gouverneur Hospital on New York City’s Lower East Side.
• The first formal air ambulance services were established in the 1920s to serve patients in the Australian Outback.
• In addition to vans, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, other vehicles used as ambulances include golf carts, boats, motorcycles, and bicycles.

What can you do to mark EMS Week? One simple yet important step is to thank the emergency medical service providers in your life. Let them know that you understand and appreciate the work that they do every day, often under very difficult conditions. You can also remind your friends and family to do the same.

Another idea is to take steps to reduce the chances that you’ll need to call EMS. Are there things you can do in your home, school, or workplace to reduce the risk of injury? For example, you might make sure that there are fire extinguishers in your house or apartment, remove trip-and-fall hazards from an elderly relative’s home, or teach your children about basic water and pool safety.

However you decide the celebrate EMS Week, know that you’re honoring the service of the thousands of men and women – including the paramedics and nurses who work on advanced air ambulance trips – who have dedicated their lives to helping care for people in need.

Interested in learning more about MedFlight911′s air ambulance services? Give us a call at 888-359-1911 or get a no-obligation air medical transport quote here.

Many of our patients and patients’ family members tell us that the process of finding an air ambulance provider was very daunting. Already stressed, scared, and emotional, they had to somehow find a company that would medically care for and transport themselves or their loved one. Typically, they began their search on Google, but often found it hard to discern which air ambulance company would provide the most effective transport — and which just had nice websites.

If that’s where you’re at in the process, we’ve put together a list of 4 tips to help you choose the right air ambulance provider for yourself or your loved one.

1. Get a referral or reference: Referrals or references from satisfied customers are one way to determine that an air ambulance company is legit. Testimonials on a website are a good start, but you should also ask to speak directly to customers. Even better is a direct referral from someone you know and trust.

2. Check the company’s professional accreditation or affiliation: Legitimate air ambulance providers are usually affiliated with one or more professional organizations, like the Association of Air Medical Services (AAMS). Verify the company’s affiliation by calling the organization or visiting its website. MedFlight911 air ambulance is affiliated AAMS, as well as with the National Business Aviation Association and the Case Managers Association of America.

3. Check with the Better Business Bureau: You can find out a business’s rating and research complaints against the company on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website. BBB-accredited businesses have made a commitment to trust, honesty, transparency, and integrity in their business dealings. You can see MedFlight911′s Better Business Bureau rating and accreditation information here.

4. Ask questions: When you call to speak with the representative of an air ambulance provider, they should be able to provide clear answers to questions you ask about the medical crew’s training, how you will be billed for services, what specific services will be provided, the company’s safety record, and more. If the person you’re talking with isn’t forthcoming or you can’t get the answers you need, look elsewhere.

Choosing an air ambulance provider isn’t something that most people have experience with, which can make it a daunting process. But it pays to do your research before hiring someone, just as when you’re choosing any other service provider. Most important, go with your gut – if something seems fishy, it probably is. And when you’re talking about the health and safety of a loved one, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

To find out more about MedFlight911′s air ambulance services, give us a call at 888-359-1911 or get a no-obligation air medical transport quote here.

What makes a successful air ambulance trip? At MedFlight911, it’s a special recipe involving each member of our team doing their job to the utmost of their ability. Specifically, each of our transports incorporates the following five characteristics.

1. Clear communication. From the moment a family member or case manager first reaches out to us, we are focused on providing clear answers to any questions they have about setting up a long-distance medical transport. Our motto is “our service begins with you.” When you call and speak with one of our medically trained transport specialists, they’ll do everything they can to get the answers you need as quickly as possible and to clearly communicate all the important details about the transport.

2. Bedside-to-bedside long-distance medical transport service. An air ambulance trip involves so much more than just the flight itself. It’s actually a multi-step process of transferring a patient from one location to another -– and taking care of his or her medical needs in the process. That’s why, for most transports, the MedFlight911 team is there every step of the way, from before the patient leave his current location (discharging facility) until he reaches his final destination (receiving facility).

3. Experienced air medical personnel. From in-office staff to pilots to our medical crews, everyone who works with MedFlight911 has the training and expertise to deal with even the most difficult and complicated of transports. Each member of our medical crew is highly experienced and extensively trained in his or her specialty. Physicians are board-certified in emergency medicine. Critical care flight nurses, paramedics, and respiratory therapists are licensed and carry specialized certifications above the normal requirements. That level of training helps us prepare to deal with whatever situations may arise during a transport.

4. Top-of-the-line air ambulance equipment. Our air ambulances feature all the latest equipment and medications necessary to care for a patient in transit. Standard medical equipment includes a highly specialized, FAA-approved stretcher system, oxygen, adult/pediatric ventilator, cardiac monitor/ defibrillator, suction, intubation equipment, IV pumps, a full complement of critical care and ACLS drugs, and other specialty equipment. Standard medications include a comprehensive supply of antibiotics to treat a wide range of bacterial and parasitic infections. For patients with unique needs, we’re able to provide specialized equipment.

5. Patient-first attitude. Most important of all, we embrace a patient-first attitude at MedFlight911. Our job is to get each and every one of our patients to their destination safely, no matter what it takes. For more than three decades, we’ve been helping patients and their families cope with a stressful, frightening process, managing all the details so that your family member and loved one can get to where they need to be as quickly as possible. Medical transport is our specialty (it’s all we do, every day) and we have the knowledge and the compassion to organize seamless transports every time.

To find out more about MedFlight911′s air ambulance services, give us a call at 888-359-1911 or get a no-obligation air medical transport quote here.

How common are in-flight medical emergencies? And what really happens when the cabin crew asks, “Is there a doctor on board?” Recently, a friend sent me a link to a lengthy article in The Atlantic by Celine Gounder, a doctor who specializes in infectious diseases and public health. She relates her own experiences responding to medical emergencies while in flight, and discusses the all-too-real – and, for many passengers, unknown – dangers of flying with a serious health condition.

First, how do you know if flying could be dangerous for you? Your doctor is the best judge, but a general rule is that if you can’t climb a flight of stairs or walk 50 yards without being short of breath, flying could be dangerous.

Second, it’s important to realize that medical events in the air are relatively unusual. But they do happen. As Gounder points out, more people are flying than ever before, and increasingly, those passengers are elderly or have health issues like high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. People with certain conditions (like lung disease) may be more affected by airplane conditions such as lower pressure in the cabin. All that can add up to a greater likelihood of something going wrong while a person is trapped in a cabin at 40,000 feet.

If a passenger does experience distress, flight crews are trained to provide some medical assistance. In more serious situations, however, they often ask for help from medical professionals on board. Of course, there’s no guarantee that there will be a doctor on a flight, and even if there is, not every M.D. will have the knowledge to deal with the situation – a podiatrist, dermatologist, or pediatrician, no matter how skilled, may not be able to deal with an elderly adult having a heart attack.

Gounder outlines several other issues that can arise with in-flight medical emergencies, including confusion over when to contact ground medical teams for support (many people don’t know this is an option) and inadequately supplied first aid kits. So, while true in-air emergencies are fairly unusual, there isn’t really a coordinated way of dealing with them, which can be dangerous for passengers.

However, there is one solution to the problems Gounder describes: services like those offered by MedFlight911 air ambulance. For people who have a health condition that could make flying alone difficult or dangerous, we offer air medical escort services. Our trained nurses or paramedics accompany the patient on a commercial flight and are available to assist in the event of an emergency. And because they’re already familiar with the patient’s condition, they’ll be better able to identify serious problems and choose the appropriate interventions (plus they come prepared, with medications and equipment appropriate to the patient’s condition).

For people whose health precludes them from flying commercially, MedFlight911 offers advanced air ambulance services. Patients (and often their loved ones) are transported on a medically equipped jet and receive constant, one-on-one attention from our specially trained flight nurses and paramedics. With seamless bedside-to-bedside service, specialized medical equipment and dedicated crews, an air ambulance can be the ideal way to travel when a commercial flight just isn’t an option.

Not every in-flight medical emergency can be prevented, but some can. At MedFlight911, we help make flying safe for everyone. Don’t take a chance with your health. Instead, plan ahead so that you can get to your destination safely.

To find out more about MedFlight911′s air ambulance and air medical transport services, give us a call at 888-359-1911 or get a no-obligation air medical transport quote.

You can watch reality TV shows about pastry chefs, swamp loggers, Alaskan fisherman, and pawn shop owners. So why not air ambulance crews? After all, it’s a high-stakes, fast-paced job. There’s more than enough life-and-death drama to captivate viewers for an entire season of television episodes.

TNT obviously saw the potential. The network is planning to air six hour-long episodes of “Life Flight” beginning in early 2014, according to a story in the Hollywood Reporter. The show will follow the Life Flight teams at the Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston. Each episode will focus on the air ambulance pilots, doctors, paramedics, and nurses who perform life-saving medical procedures for patients.

Life Flight flies helicopter-based air ambulance missions, so it’s a little different from what we do here at MedFlight911 (all our advanced air ambulance trips are via fixed-wing aircraft). But this series will definitely draw attention to the important work that air ambulance crews do each and every day, putting their lives on the line as they work to save the lives of critically ill and injured patients.

Of course, we hope that the presence of a television crew doesn’t in any way interfere with that patient care, which should always be paramount, or jeopardize the safety of the crew or passengers. Hopefully, viewers who tune in will end up with a better understanding of the important work that everyone in the air ambulance industry does. I know I’ll be checking out the show when it does air next year!

One reason that a show like “Life Flight” is so exciting is that it will likely shine a positive light on the air ambulance industry. Too often, people only hear about air ambulances – both rotor-wing and fixed-wing – when a tragedy happens. While accidents are undoubtedly newsworthy, it’s also nice to see the good work that air ambulance medical teams and flight crews do every day to keep patients safe and healthy and to get them the care that they need getting some attention as well.

At MedFlight911, the deep satisfaction that we get from helping patients is what keeps us going every day. Attention and accolades are always nice, of course, but it’s the words of gratitude and looks of thanks that we receive from patients and their families that truly tell us the value of the work that we do.  For us, that’s worth more than any TV show.

To find out more about MedFlight911′s air ambulance services, give us a call at 888-359-1911 or get a no-obligation long-distance medical transport quote here.

This week, air ambulance doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other associated medical professionals will gather in Austin, Texas, for the 2013 Critical Care Transport Medicine Conference (CCTMC).  The conference offers a forum for those involved in medical transport – including physicians, nurses, paramedics, respiratory therapists, and allied health professionals – to come together and discuss important issues and developments in the field and gain a better understanding of caring for patients in critical care setting.

This year’s CCTMC runs from Monday, April 8 through Wednesday, April 10, and is presented by the Air Medical Physician Association (AMPA), Air and Surface Transport Nurses Association (ASTNA),  International Association of Flight and Critical Care Paramedics (IAFCCP), and St. Anthony Hospital.  Attendees can see presentations on a wide variety of topics related to critical care transport, including:

• Managing combative or dangerous patients

• Pediatric and neonatal transport

• Ventilator management of critically ill patients

• Transporting patients from Amish country

• Transporting a total artificial heart patient

You can see a complete conference program here.

Industry conferences like CCTMC are vitally important to medical professionals like the nurses and paramedics who work with MedFlight911 air ambulance. Our day-to-day existence is so hectic and filled with high-stakes, long-distance transports, and the stress of caring for patients, that it can sometimes be a challenge to step back and look at the bigger picture. Taking a few days to spend time with colleagues from around the country, hear their struggles and challenges, and get updated on the latest trends in patient care and medicine, is incredibly valuable.

CCTMC and other conferences are also important to us because we’re firm believers in the value of ongoing training and education for our air ambulance medical crews. That’s why we want our crews to have advanced certifications like Certified Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN), Certified Flight Paramedic (FP-C), and Critical Care Emergency Medical Technician Paramedic (CCEMTP). It’s also why we require 100 hours of continuing education for each of our air medical transport crew members each year. We want to be 100% confident that our medical team is able to provide the highest possible level of care to patients. That’s the core of our promise to you, and it’s vitally important that we deliver on that promise during each and every transport.

To find out more about MedFlight911′s air ambulance services, give us a call at 888-359-1911 or get a no-obligation long-distance medical transport quote here.

On Christmas Eve, MedFlight911 air ambulance lost one of our very special patients to lung cancer. Stephanie Deasy was a 41-year-old mother of two who had been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in the summer of 2010. Stephanie worked as a personal trainer and was active, fit, and otherwise healthy, and had never smoked in her life. Her cancer was an extremely rare type that strikes women in their forties with no history of smoking. At the time of her diagnosis, doctors gave Stephanie just six weeks to live.

Stephanie, who already had a strong commitment to natural healing and alternative therapies, didn’t accept her doctor’s prognosis.

“I was in complete denial,” Stephanie said in a video where she discussed her diagnosis and subsequent treatment. Her oncologist told her that surgery and radiation weren’t options, and that chemotherapy would be grueling.

Rather than submit immediately to a harsh round of chemotherapy, Stephanie decided to try an alternative approach – medical tourism. She knew of a treatment center in Mexico, and she opted to go there to get the kind of holistic care that she didn’t believe she could get in the United States. “I called on Thursday and by Sunday I was on the airplane,” said Stephanie.

At Sanoviv, a unique facility in Mexico that combines conventional and alternative treatments, Stephanie was able to focus on her entire well being, receiving care and therapy that prepared her to face the chemotherapy that she’d receive when she returned to the United States.

Stephanie spent a month at Sanoviv. After four weeks, it was time for her to return to her family in Virginia. That’s where MedFlight911 stepped in. Stephanie crossed the border from Tijuana to San Diego, which is where our air ambulance team met her. At the time, her prognosis was still poor. Our medical crew helped care for her on the cross-country journey. Stephanie and her entire family were grateful for the sensitive, hands-on care she received during that long distance air ambulance trip, and they kept in touch with us after she returned home and updated us on her health and progress.

At home, Stephanie made an amazing turnaround and survived for another 18 months – far longer than her doctors in the U.S. predicted. She was even able to return to Sanoviv and share her story of healing with the medical tourism facility’s staff and doctors, as well as other patients. At a time when more and more people are looking outside the United States for medical care and alternative treatments that aren’t yet available in this country – medical tourism – Stephanie’s story is truly an inspiring one.

Stephanie’s illness was serious and ultimately, she lost her battle with lung cancer, passing away on Christmas Eve, 2012. We were deeply saddened to here of her death, but at the same thankful that we were able to get to know this amazing woman, who fought such a hard battle against her disease with grace and wisdom.

I encourage you to watch Stephanie share her heart-wrenching and inspiring story on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2C81498449C55471

To find out more about MedFlight911′s air medical transport services, give us a call at 888-359-1911 or get a no-obligation air ambulance quote here.

Last week, I wrote about how MedFlight911 air ambulance was able to help a case manager resolve a difficult patient case. To recap, the case manager had a patient who had been in a serious car accident with her father. The dad had passed away, and the patient’s family wanted to get her back to her home state so that she could be closer to her loved ones during her recovery. Finances were an issue, so we stepped in and recommended a medical motor coach as a more affordable transport option than a traditional air ambulance.

Helping alleviate the stress case managers feel when trying to figure out how best to get the patient to where he or she needs to go is one of the added benefits we provide. Obviously, our service is medical transport – providing medical care while getting the patient from point A to point B. But often, we end up providing so much more, like taking a huge burden off the case manager’s shoulders or, in many cases, being a shoulder to cry on for grieving family members.

Often, up to the point of transport, family members have been surviving on pure adrenalin, running in many directions at once trying to arrange the medical care and transport for their loved one. They often have not yet had time to process their own feelings, especially when the family member’s illness or injury was unexpected. When we transported the young boy who had been badly injured in a play accident a couple of years ago, for example, his mother travelled with us. She was the picture of composure until her son, settled into his stretcher on the air ambulance, dosed off to sleep. It wasn’t until then that she felt like things were under control, taken care of, and her emotions came flooding to the surface.

Our team was there for the mother as she started the grieving process, which she was able to do because she knew that her son was being taken care of by our team. This is the kind of service that you can’t put a price on. Sure, the most important (and obvious) aspect of our job at MedFlight911 air ambulance has to do with the nuts and bolts of arranging a transport and making sure the patient gets the medical care he or she needs. But there’s a more emotional component to our services as well. Because we’re so experienced with helping patients and families, we’re able to provide them with a unique kind of support. We know what they’re going through, and we’re able to lend a sympathetic ear – and sometimes a shoulder to cry on – when people need it most. When we’re able to do that, it makes our job so much more meaningful and rewarding, because we can see how much it matters to the people who we serve.

Often, too, our patients experience benefits outside what would be considered our service of medical transport. The elderly woman who we transported from her home on the West coast to live with her son in Texas, for example, hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in years. But in the motor coach the rhythm of the road was so relaxing that she almost immediately fell into a deep sleep – the motor coach was actually a welcome respite from the hectic atmosphere of the nursing home, where the constant comings and goings of doctors and nurses made it impossible to get a good night’s rest. The motion and gentle vibration of the motor coach lulled her into a 12-hour deep sleep, which she awoke from finally feeling rested (which greatly improved her outlook on what was a tough move for her).

So while being excellent at providing medical care while transporting our patients is our first and most important goal, going above and beyond that to provide the caring human touch – a shoulder for the family to cry on, the patient’s first good night’s sleep in years – is the reason why we’ve dedicated ourselves to this business.

To find out more about MedFlight911′s medical motor coach services, give us a call at 888-359-1911 or get a no-obligation long-distance medical transport quote here.

Late last year, I took a call from a case manager who was in a pretty difficult – and emotionally challenging – situation. She had a patient who had been in a car accident. The woman was seriously injured and her father had been killed.

When I spoke to the case manager, it was immediately obvious that this particular case was really hard for her. I could hear the frustration in her voice as she explained the problem. The patient was in a hospital in the Southwest, but her family wanted to get her back home to the East coast as soon as possible, so that she could be closer to her family and other loved ones. It was just before Christmas, and everyone involved was struggling to deal with both the daughter’s injuries and the father’s death. To make matters worse, the patient’s insurance company was refusing to cover the cost of an air ambulance flight. The family didn’t have the resources to pay for the air ambulance out of pocket, and the case manager wasn’t sure what to do next.

After speaking to the case manager for a few minutes and getting some more specific details on the patient’s condition, I knew I had the answer. I suggested that a medical motor coach might be the perfect fit for both the patient’s and the family’s needs.

A medically equipped motor coach offers a more affordable alternative to an expensive air ambulance trip. Since this patient was medically stable, ground medical transport was an acceptable alternative. (Patients who are in more critical condition or need to travel internationally or get somewhere as quickly as possible are typically still better served by an air ambulance.)

Once I explained the medical motor coach option to the case manager, I could tell she was relieved. Here was a solution to her dilemma. Our team went to work right away, quickly arranging the transport so that the patient could be back with her loved ones for the holidays. MedFlight911 coordinated all the details, so the case manager and the patient’s family had one less thing to worry about. In a matter of days, we were ready to transport the patient back to her home, so she could begin the recovery process.

Come back next week to read about what happened during this emotional medical motor coach journey.

Are you a case manager who is interested in learning more about MedFlight911′s medical motor coach services? Please give us a call at 888-359-1911 or get a no-obligation long-distance medical transport quote here.

What happens if you suffer an in-flight medical emergency? A story in the news recently likely raised just that question in the minds of many people. According to news reports, in January, a 25-year-old passenger on a flight from Brazil to the United States fell ill and died while in transit.

It’s not clear exactly what happened, but apparently the Brazilian woman began experiencing medical distress while on an American Airlines flight from Sao Paulo to Dallas. A doctor who happened to be on board the flight attempted to treat her with the help of the crew, but they were unsuccessful. The plane made an emergency landing in Houston, but it was too late to save the passenger, who was pronounced dead shortly after landing.

Authorities went so far as to call homicide detectives to the scene in Houston, but there was no sign of any trauma. While the woman’s precise cause of death wasn’t released, it’s certainly an alarming story. Deaths on airplanes are fairly unusual, but they’re hardly unheard of – in September, a woman died on a Korean Airlines flight, and in June, a man on a Kenya Airlines flight passed away.

The odds of a dying while in flight are still incredibly small. But medical emergencies do happen while in transit. In the early days of air travel, flight attendants were all nurses, but that’s no longer the case (though the crew of a commercial airline will typically have training in CPR). Sometimes, there’s a doctor or other medical professional on board who is able to provide assistance in an emergency – but even medical professionals are sometimes reluctant to help for fear of liability.

So while the odds of a healthy person dying on a plane are incredibly small, a commercial airplane is not a place for a person who is sick or injured to travel alone. But because it’s difficult to deal with a medical emergency on a commercial airplane, people who are very ill are urged not to fly, or even denied boarding by the airline. Fortunately, for those patients who must travel by air, there are alternatives.

Air medical escorts travel with passengers on commercial flights, providing assistance with lifting and transferring, oxygen, basic monitoring, administration of medications and basic hygiene. These trained medical professionals are with the patient at all times, and able to respond quickly if an emergency arises. The medical escort knows the patient’s history and medical conditions and is equipped with medical supplies and equipment in case an emergency arises.

For patients who are seriously ill or injured – or not able to sit upright (which is required for takeoff and landing on a commercial airplane), air ambulances are another medical transport option. These are specially equipped airplanes that are able to transport people with serious medical conditions. Nurses and paramedics monitor the patient throughout the flight, ensuring that they get to their destination safely.

At MedFlight911, our experienced team of air medical escorts can provide care for a patient while in flight, potentially averting a tragedy if they do experience a medical emergency. For people whose health means that commercial air travel is not an option, we offer advanced air ambulance services. If you or a family member is sick and needs to travel, don’t take a chance. An air medical escort or air ambulance can provide comfort and peace of mind for you and your loved ones.

To find out more about MedFlight911′s long-distance medical transport services, give us a call at 888-359-1911 or get a no-obligation air ambulance quote here.