Air Ambulance and Medevac Services and Organizations
Category Topic: Air Ambulance Services
Author: Disabled World
Updated/Revised Date: 2022/04/13
Contents: Summary - Introduction - Main - Subtopics - Publications
Synopsis: Information including news and the history of air ambulance services - also known as Aeromedical, Medevac, and in Australia, Flying Doctor Services. Air ambulance services, sometimes called Aeromedical Evacuation or simply Medevac, are provided by a variety of different sources in different places in the world. Common equipment for air ambulances includes ventilators, medication, an ECG, and monitoring unit, CPR equipment, and stretchers.
Introduction
An air ambulance is an aircraft used for emergency medical assistance in situations where either a traditional ambulance cannot reach the scene easily or quickly enough, or the patient needs to be transported over a distance or terrain that makes air transportation the most practical transport. These and related operations are referred to as Aeromedical.
Main Document
Defining Air Ambulances and Their Purposes
- Air Ambulance
- An air ambulance is a specially outfitted aircraft that transports injured or sick people in a medical emergency or over distances or terrain impractical for a conventional ground ambulance. These and related operations are called aeromedical. In some circumstances, the same aircraft may be used to search for missing or wanted people. Like ground ambulances, air ambulances are equipped with medical equipment vital to monitoring and treating injured or ill patients. Common equipment for air ambulances includes medications, ventilators, ECG's and monitoring units, CPR equipment, and stretchers.
- Medical Evacuation
- Often shortened to medevac or medivac, is the timely and efficient movement and en route care provided by medical personnel to wounded being evacuated from a battlefield, to injured patients being evacuated from the scene of an accident to receiving medical facilities, or to patients at a rural hospital requiring urgent care at a better-equipped facility using medically equipped ground vehicles (ambulances) or aircraft (air ambulances).
The first civilian uses of aircraft as ambulances were probably incidental. In northern Canada, Australia, and in the Scandinavian countries, remote, sparsely populated settlements were often inaccessible by road for months at a time, or even year round.
Air ambulance crews are supplied with equipment that enables them to provide medical treatment to a critically injured or ill patient. Common equipment for air ambulances includes ventilators, medication, an ECG, and monitoring unit, CPR equipment, and stretchers.
Air ambulance services, sometimes called Aeromedical Evacuation or simply Medevac, are provided by a variety of different sources in different places in the world.
There are several reasonable methods of differentiating types of air ambulance services. These include military/civilian models and services that are government-funded, fee-for-service, donated by a business enterprise, or funded by public donations.
In 1928 the first formal, full-time air ambulance service was established in the Australian outback. This organization became the Royal Flying Doctor Service and continues operating to the present.
In 1934, the first civil air ambulance service in Africa was established in Morocco by Marie Marvingt.
Following the end of the Second World War, the first civilian air ambulance in North America was established by the Saskatchewan government in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, which had both remote communities and great distances to consider in the provision of health care to its citizens. The Saskatchewan air ambulance service continues to be active as of 2009.
In the United Kingdom, the Scottish Ambulance Service operates two helicopters and two fixed-wing aircraft twenty-four hours per day. These represent the UK's only government-funded air ambulance service.
In the United States, 1947 saw the creation of the Schaefer Air Service, the country's first air ambulance service. This service was founded by J. Walter Schaefer, of Schaefer Ambulance Service in Los Angeles, California.
Subtopics
Latest Publications From Our Air Ambulance Services Category
1: Is There a Doctor on Board? Guide to Managing In-Flight Medical Emergencies - Article reviews policies and procedures and a video helps health care professionals understand what they might encounter during an in-flight medical emergency and what resources are available to help with treatment.
2: AeroCare - Providing Medical Escort Service For Patients - AeroCare will complete necessary forms with airlines, arrange ground transportation and coordinate with sending and receiving medical facilities.
3: Miracle Flights Flyit4ward Campaign to Fund Medical Flights Nationwide - Flyit4ward campaign aims to raise awareness and monies that will fund flights for those in need of critical care.
4: TBI Air Evacuation Worsens Learning, Memory and Brain Cell Loss - Air evacuation following a traumatic brain injury worsens effects on patient's learning, memory and brain cell loss .
5: Critical Care Helicopter Simulator for Flight Nurse Training - Case Western Reserve University installs nations first critical-care transport helicopter simulator for flight nurse training.
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