Insurance Assistance Provider Network Directory - IPMI Magazine Air Ambulance Buyers Guide

Monday, 13 May 2013 08:42

When you have a patient that needs to be flown back home or to a location with a better medical standard, which company will you choose? Let us give you some advice.

Insiders know that a cheap transport makes it much more expensive afterwards. Severe medical side effects of a low quality transport often reveal themselves not earlier than 24 to 48 hours afterwards. Atelectasis, pneumonia, decubital ulcers are just some of these. Are you already sure on the choice of company? Not yet? Good! Who is performing the transport? Is it a primarily medical company or an aviation company?

This is important for making an estimation how your patient will be treated. A patient is much more than just „living cargo“. And who is with the patient? In some countries it is allowed that even critical care patients are flown without a physician. Why are there differences in the quite strict regulations for ground interfacility transfers of critical care patients compared with the air transfers?

Ask for the qualification of the medical personnel on the plane. Your patient is worth a specialist intensivist and registered ICU/anesthesia nurse. Paramedics have a different medical education, being well-trained for emergencies, but not for the nursing needs on longer flights. And look for the bed-to-bed service, taking over the patient from the treating staff and handing over the patient to the treating staff in the receiving hospital. This reduces the risk of losing important information. Are you still not sure which company to choose? Good! Besides the operations and the personnel there are differences in medical equipment. Just check if the provided equipment really meets the needs of your patient.

If your patient is comfortably awake on a ventilator with a semi spontaneous breathing mode, the transport ventilator should be able to provide the same. Besides for moving the patient on the transport stretcher, additional sedation means an active additional vulneration of the patient. Do you already get a clearer image? Well, there is some more information. The smaller the plane, the harder it gets to provide good and safe medical treatment. Here medical expertise, nursing abilities, experience and good equipment make the difference. Our Tempur-mattresses reduce the risk of a decubital ulcer significantly. Disinfection of the cabin and the medical equipment is very important.

It is shown by scientific research that up to 50% of the surfaces were not sufficiently treated with a wipe desinfection, potentially harming your patient. Much more reliable is the disinfection with vaporized hydrogen peroxide (Saniswiss Biosanitizer). If you use a broker to make the decision for you, let them choose a company according to your demands. You also have a responsibility for the patient during transport!

GlobalMED International – the only medical operated company that just uses specialists for intensive care medicine and registered ICU/anesthesia nurses, providing a worldwide multilingual bed-to-bed service with the top-of-the-list equipment and superior hygiene standards.

Qualification of the Medical Director

• Board Member, Medical Advisor and Instructor for the IAFCCP
• Auditor and recent Board Member for EURAMI
• Member of the Air Medical Physician Association
• Board certified in Anesthesiology, Critical Care, Emergency Medicine, Pain Therapy, Travel Medicine, Altitude & Trekking Medicine
• Leading Emergency Physician
• Instructor for paramedics of the German Red Cross
• 22 years experience in intensive care and emergency transports
• 11 years experience in air ambulance transfers, (3 years medical director of a big air ambulance company)
• 7 years experience in Helicopter Emergency Medical Services

• Critical care treatment on air ambulance flights
• Medical escorts on commercial airliners
• Extreme longrange medical escorts
• Education for air medical personnel
• Quality advise for air ambulance companies
• Achievement of medical information in foreign hospitals
• Medical recommendation on „fit-to-fly“ status
• Medical travel advice

Air Ambulance

• Five dedicated air ambulance Learjets
• Four in permanent double stretcher configuration
• Based at Cologne Intl. Airport
• No nightflight restrictions
• Own maintenance facility

New Tempur mattresses

Especially on longer flights patients are endangered to develop decubital ulcers. To fight this danger all stretchers have new Tempur matresses, clinically proven to reduce the rate of decubital ulcers, dramatically. Also the pillows were exchanged by new ones with variable thickness to increase the patient's comfort.

Desinfection of the planes

After each mission the complete interior of the planes including all medical equipment is desinfected with the „Bio Sanitizer“, a device working with hydrogen peroxide. Its' effectiveness is granted by the Robert-Koch-Institute (the German CDC). Cross-infection of a patient with multiresistant bacteria by contaminated surfaces is not possible anymore.

Medical Escorts

• Mainly starting from Frankfurt Intl. A
• irport One of Europe's gateways to the world
• Many direct connections
• Base of Lufthansa's Patient Transport Compartment for intensive care patients (PTC)

Medical Personnel

• Consultants in Anesthesiology, Critical Care, and Emergency Medicine
• Registered Nurses in Anesthesiology and Critical Care

Additional Training

• Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
• Paediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS)
• Newborn Resuscitation Management (NRM)
• Intensive Care Transport Course
• Altitude Physiology
• Hygiene
• Safety equipment on the aircraft
• Flight emergency training with evacuation
• Smoke in the cabin & Ditching
• Hazardous materials
• Survival
• Communication / CRM

Address: Auf Roedern 7c, D-56283 Pfaffenheck

Phone: +49 6742 897 425

Fax: +49 3212 100 5018

Email: info@globalmed-international.eu

Website: www.globalmed-international.eu