How to Choose an Air Evac

Need a lift? Whether it is for a loved one or a client, we understand that it can be hard to choose a good air ambulance service. It does not have to be, though. AirCARE1 is ready to walk you through what it takes for us to be a great provider and your top choice in air evac.

When choosing an air evac service, the type of aircraft is an important consideration. You will want to find one that combines a long range to minimize or eliminate fuel stops, and an extra wide entry door to ease patient loading. AirCARE1 uses a Lear 35A type jet because it is ideal for these purposes.

Having the proper medical equipment on board seems like it should be standard, but you might be surprised. Sometimes, air ambulance teams use their jets for charter purposes as well, and they do not have the space inside to install more than the bare minimum. If a life-saving piece of equipment is not used very often, it might get cut out of their setup! You will never have this problem with AirCARE1. We do not charter our jets, and it is vital to us that our patients can get the same standard of treatment in the air that they would get in a ground-level hospital.

As with the medical equipment, having at least two pilots seems like it would be a good idea for all air evac providers, but some of them only employ one pilot per flight. This can be disastrous if anything happens to that one pilot! AirCARE1 jets, like commercial airline flights, come equipped with a captain and a first officer with high-level pilot certification. In addition, each pilot has to have at least 2,000 hours of flying experience, and we ensure that they are well rested before embarking on a flight.

The medical staff on an air ambulance is just as important as the flight crew. Be sure that you are paying for quality! Not all providers train their medical crew to be able to practice mid-air medicine. At AirCARE1, however, every member of our medical team gets specialized training in how to handle flight-related medical conditions and in-flight emergencies.

Good providers are concerned with the patient’s overall well being in addition to their vital signs, and AirCARE1 prides itself on holistic care. We want our patients to be as comfortable as possible during their flights. We do our best to create relaxing environments with the following services given where appropriate: therapeutic music in noise-canceling headsets, therapeutic hand massage, in-flight movies, and reading materials.

Your air evac service should have a friendly policy toward traveling companions. People do not get as stressed out on ambulance flights when someone that they know is flying with them. Of course, they might if they thought that it would fatten the bill! Some air ambulances will charge more if someone accompanies the patient in the aircraft. When you choose AirCARE1, however, up to two traveling companions can fly with the patient at no extra charge.

Furred and feathered friends are important, too. Besides passengers, AirCARE1 also allows for small pets in cages depending on the available space. As with passengers, having pets along can help with stress levels. It is also understandable that a patient may not want to leave a loved animal behind.

A quality air evac provider will offer bedside-to-bedside service. Bedside-to-bedside service means that the flight crew will not only land with the patient, but that they will also go with that patient to the medical facility. The crew makes sure that the patient arrives safely and that the medical staff at the facility have all of the information that they need to treat the patient. Providers whose crews leave their patients after landing risk interrupting the continuity of patient care. AirCARE1 transitions its patients smoothly from aircraft to facility with caring bedside-to-bedside service.