Many people look forward to their next vacation all year long. After buying your airline tickets, packing your bags, and booking your hotel, you probably expect to enjoy an entire week of fun with family or friends. However, the unthinkable can happen while you’re on vacation, particularly if you’re traveling to a foreign country. In the event you’re seriously injured while on vacation, chances are you will want to return home as soon as possible to receive optimal care. Here are a few tips that will help you locate international medical flights.

How to Locate Air Medical Flights

If you find yourself injured or ill in a foreign country, doctors may not allow you to fly home commercially without a nurse with you. The vast majority of people find themselves in such a situation have no clue how to get back home. You or a loved one may begin to look for medical transportation on the Internet. However, this process can be very frustrating and confusing.

There are many air medical evacuation companies, so it can be difficult to choose the right medical transport provider for your needs. It can even be difficult to determine the difference between various providers. Here are a few questions you should ask if you’re trying to determine whether an air ambulance service provider is right for your needs.

  1. Are you a medical transport provider or broker? It’s best to use an air ambulance provider because a broker will charge you money to help you find a medical transport provider.
  2. Is your company NAAMTA (National Accreditation Alliance Medical Transport Applications) accredited? NAAMTA is viewed as the Gold Standard for medical transport accreditation. NAAMTA is nationally recognized and many air ambulance companies find it difficult to pass their accreditation guidelines. This is why very few air ambulance companies are NAAMTA accredited.
  3. Does the air ambulance company have their own aircraft that they own, maintain, and fly? What type of aircrafts does the air ambulance use? Most medical transport companies use Learjets.
  4. Does the air ambulance company fly internationally? Some air ambulances only fly nationally.
  5. Does the medical transport company employ its own flight and medical crews?
  6. Is the contract long and confusing?
  7. Does the company offer commercial medical transport or other less expensive options?
  8. Will insurance cover the cost of the flight? Be sure to confirm that the flight will be covered with your insurance company.
  9. Is the quoted price what you will pay or are there hidden fees?
  10. How many years has the air ambulance been in business under the same name?

As long as you ask these questions, you should have no problem finding air medical flights in the event you become ill or injured while traveling. If you would like a free quote from us here at AirEvac International, don’t hesitate to contact us.