For those who need to fly with medications, going through airport security can seem like an intimidating procedure. It’s important to know what you can and cannot do so that your airport security experience is as pleasant as possible.
That requires information. The below rules apply to anyone with needs to fly with medication or with medical devices. But keep in mind that if you need assistance at the airport because of a disability or condition, call ahead. Airports can arrange specialized service for those who have such conditions, as well as those who need to fly with oxygen or other medical devices.
Liquid Medications
To understand what you can do when you fly with medication, you must know the difference between liquid medications and all other types of medications.
You can carry your medication in pill and solid form in unlimited amounts in your carry-on bag. You can also carry medical accessories such as freezer packs, IV bags, pumps and syringes. To get through the screening process more smoothly, clearly label any of the above items in your carry-on bag.
However, there are rules around carrying medication in liquid form onto the plane.
It’s permissible to carry liquid medication that weighs more than 3.4 ounces and contains a reasonable amount of medication for the flight. However, you must inform the TSA officer you are carrying medically necessary liquids before you start the screening process. They may ask you to open the container and subject it to further screenings.
Make sure to arrive early at the airport the day of your flight to allow for the time needed for security screenings.
According to TSA Cares, you should Inform the officer of your disability or show them your disability notification card at the checkpoint before your screening begins. Let them know if you are carrying any medication that cannot be screened by X-rays.
Like all passengers, you will be screened by advanced imaging technology or by passing through a metal detector. If you cannot go through these detectors, a TSA officer will perform a “pat down” screening. You may also go through this as part of additional screening measures, or to resolve any issues if you or your belongings set off an alarm.
Special Medical Devices
Some people need to fly with oxygen or other medical devices. In some cases, additional screening may prove necessary for some devices.
For example, if you wear a medical device attached to your body, inform the TSA officer before they begin the pat down. If the device can be screened by X-ray and you can safely disconnect it, then it will be run through an X-ray scanner. If that is not the case, TSA agents may use additional screening methods on the device while it is attached to you.
Prosthesis and mastectomy bras are both considered necessary medical devices. You can wear them during the screening process. TSA officers will not ask you to remove them or reveal them.
Other Issues
At any time during the screening process, you can ask to speak to a supervisor if you are uncomfortable. You may also request a private screening.
The TSA also has a number for those with medical conditions and disabilities to call if they have any questions. That number is 1-855-787-2227. Also, these rules apply to checked in bags. But it’s advisable to put medications in carry-on bags, in case you need access to them immediately. Also, while TSA does not require placing medications in prescription bottles, some states have laws on this issue. Check for these laws in the states where you will travel.
We all want to avoid layovers, which are typically uncomfortable and annoying experiences. But not at those with the best airport attractions. For reasons explained below, some of the best airports for layovers provide a good experience, including airports in Tampa, Munich, Amsterdam, Atlanta, Vancouver, Dubai, Las Vegas and across Florida.
In some cases, these
airports just provide well thought-out and pleasant amenities. In others, you
can gamble, look at art and even see a jellyfish.
So, if you book a trip
that requires a layover, don’t fret. Just try to make it in one of the airports
listed below.
Tampa International
Airport
Tampa International Airport ranks in the top tier of best airports for layovers because of its design, amenities and overall cleanliness and order. One of the busiest airports for business people and tourists from around the world, TIA has a convenient spoke-and-wheel design for its terminals, 24-hour food choices, free WiFi and the option of pay-for-use lounges. Friendly staff, too.
Germans are known for
creating orderly and clean transportation, and the Munich International Airport
provides a stellar example of that approach. A major hub for people flying into
Europe, the airport provides nap cabins, free tea and coffee stalls, and a
Bavarian brewery. It even has a mini golf course and an ice rink.
Hartsfield-Jackson
International Airport
Hartsfield-Jackson
International Airport in Atlanta ranks as the busiest airport in the world. If
you have time to kill waiting for your next flight, you can get great exercise
by walking the miles of tunnels that connect all the terminals. The airport
also has more than 200 restaurants and retailers and live music in the food
court.
Vancouver
International Airport
If you have a layover in Vancouver International Airport, then you must check out the permanent exhibit run by the Vancouver Aquarium in the international terminal. This 114,000-liter aquarium has more than 5,000 animals, including wolf eels, Red Irish Lord fish, giant plumose anemone, and an armored sea cucumber. It’s easy to see how this one ranks among the best airports for layovers – what other airport has an armored sea cucumber?
Dubai International
Airport
Dubai International
Airport in the United Arab Emirates is one of the best airports for a layover
for the same reason so much in the UAE makes other “best of” lists: A lot of
money has been spent building it. This airport has an in-airport hotel health
spa, fantastic jewelry stores and beautiful design. If you have time to leave
the airport, there are dune buggy and camel rides not far away.
Amsterdam Airport
Schiphol
There is truly no other
airport like Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. This airport is the only one in the
world that has an art museum attached. The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Schiphol
features paintings from Van Gogh and other masters. If art isn’t your thing,
you can also go to the Holland Casino between gates E and F in departure Hall
2. Talk about your extremes in entertainment options!
Las Vegas
Speaking of gambling, you can certainly do that in Las Vegas McCarran International Airport. The Las Vegas airport made a recent list of U.S. airports with the highest level of customer satisfaction, making it among the best airports for layovers.
Florida, another place with many tourists and visitors, also placed many airports on the list, including Orlando International Airport, Jacksonville International Airport, Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers, Fla., and Palm Beach International Airport.
Other U.S. airports on the list included:
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport
Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport/World
Portland (Ore.) International Airport
Dallas Love Field
Indianapolis International Airport
These best airports for layovers can turn a long trip into something that is at least pleasant and sometimes memorable. Keep them in mind when you need to book a trip and it requires more than one flight and a long layover.
It may seem overly dramatic to equate the trauma of a soldier at war with that of a citizen at home. But the collapse of a marriage or the death of a spouse may shake certain personalities down to their core. The shattering life events of civilian life may be as traumatic as killing a Taliban fighter in Afghanistan or having a leg blown off by a land mine in Iraq.
Soldiers Returning Home
Soldiers who return from the traumas of war may deal with them successfully and proceed to take up a more “ordinary” life. They may start families, go to work, get educational certificates, complete graduate school. But other returning soldiers may not adjust so successfully. They may sleep with a gun beneath their pillow, have difficulty keeping a job, and abuse their spouses and children.
According to the common view, soldiers who move easily from war to citizenship pass the test of strength and bravery. They deserved the flag-waving ride from the airport their hometown gave them. But soldiers who fail to adapt are presumed weak, cowardly, and a burden on the Veterans Affairs budget: “babies in need of a binky” as one military bulletin board put it.
Understanding PTSD
Judgments like these are too simple. Soldiers who adapt may of course stay that way. But if their post-war stress is severe and they deny the extent of it, we might find them years later shooting up their employers’ company and their co-workers with it. After well over a decade of wars without victory, we are at last learning not just to identify PTSD and find ways to treat it, but to understand how widely it has spread among the formerly military or non-military population. Our lives now have so many pressures, some of them traumatic, that it is impossible to tell if or when some who suffer from them will reach the end of their tether.
Sources of Stress
Think of the absurd fistfights between parents, or parents and referees, during their children’s baseball or soccer games. In the minds of these parents the game becomes like society itself. The only point of the game is to win it, however drastic the behavior necessary to make that happen.
A host of understandable sources of stress is behind such loss of perspective. Will my child or children succeed? What about the cost of sending them to college? Will they ever find jobs lucrative enough to pay off their student loans and start their own families? Will my own company keep me on or let me go? Can I ever save enough for retirement? And will my child (or children) be able to stand up to the stress of succeeding without recourse to addictive drinking, drugs or sex, not to mention suicide.
What then is PTSD? The trauma itself may not consist of just one event. The stresses of modern civilians, like those of modern soldiers, are so many and varied that they can easily add up to trauma. But however multiple they are, they probably have one powerful feeling in common. When I was about nine, I got beat up for no obvious reason by four neighborhood hooligans. When I came home miserable and dirtied up and found my father in the living room, I was looking for what I was sure would be sympathy. Instead he told me I should have bravely taken on those kids, outnumbered though I was, and beaten THEM up.
Those words left me with a truly awful feeling. If I had to grow up in a world like the one my father apparently lived in, I was bound to fail in it. The feeling was traumatic in that this living room scene comes back to me whenever I am in danger of suffering any kind of major setback. By never mentioning that feeling to anyone I kept it knotted up inside me for years. Trauma has the power not just to make us think and act irrationally, but to destroy us. If we never find someone sympathetic enough to talk to about it, the feeling it provokes may lurk inside us like a bomb forever on the verge of blowing up.
This blog article was written by Flying Angels Corporate Ethicist Ronald Wendling. In addition to his posts here, his thoughts can be found on his own blog page Keeping up with Ron.
Patients use medical transportation in both emergency and non-emergency situations. Medical transportation options include non-emergency services such as wheelchairs, medical couriers, ambulatory services, travel arrangements and flight nurses. Emergency services include basic life support ambulances, advanced life support ambulances and air ambulances.
The following provides an overview of some of the common medical transportation options used by patients.
Benefits of Medical
Transportation
Every medical transportation option has benefits because they all effectively and efficiently get patients to their destination. En route, experienced medical personnel, including doctors and nurses, provide medical services as needed.
In non-emergency medical
transportation (NEMT), the ability to schedule everything ahead of time and
travel with a flight nurse provides enormous benefits to patients. Rather than
take on the challenges of travel alone, they have the peace of mind of having
trained medical experts with them.
Types of Medical
Transportation
The following offers a list of medical transportation options for patients. All choices fit into two major categories: emergency transportation and NEMT.
Non-Emergency
Medical Transportation
NEMT is the best medical transportation option for those with a medical condition or injury that does not pose an immediate threat. Typically, older patients, those with disabilities or those who have difficulty with mobility from an injury use NEMT. Professional NEMT service companies such as Flying Angels can make all travel arrangements and assign a flight nurse to travel with patients. The company offers the service for domestic and international flights.
The specific types of
transportation used in NEMT include the following.
Wheelchair
A very common form of transportation in non-emergency situations. Patients use wheelchairs if they have difficulty walking for long distances through the airport and from ground transportation into the airport. Special, narrow wheelchairs are used on planes. Flight nurses ensure that plane personnel safety store personal wheelchairs during flight.
This is typically a car
or van that takes patients to and from the airport. It’s one of the commonly
used forms of NEMT transport. It’s designed for those who can walk with little
to no assistance.
Flight Nurses
Flight nurses are a key
element in NEMT. They travel with patients to their destination. They have
years of experience and a high level of expertise in providing any medical
services needed during a flight. They oversee a patient’s medications and
monitor their health. Upon arrival, they arrange any ground transportation
needed to get a patient to their destination.
Medical couriers safely transport blood, organs and other human biological specimens between hospitals or research facilities. All medical couriers must meet government regulations, including provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
Stretcher
Used only in
circumstances where a patient has an injury that prevents them from standing or
walking but is not an emergency situation. This option is limited to
international flights on a few selected airlines.
Emergency Medical
Transportation Options
Just as the name implies, emergency medical transportation options are used when patients are in a medical crisis and need transportation to a hospital as quickly as possible. The emphasis in all these areas is finding a balance between safety and speed.
Ambulances are typically in one of two
categories: basic life support and advanced life support.
Basic Life Support
Ambulances
A basic life support ambulance offers medical
service from emergency medical technicians during transportation to a hospital,
rehabilitation clinic or testing facility. Medical supplies and equipment on a
basic life support ambulance include defibrillators, aspirin, EpiPens,
pulse oximetry, intranasal naloxone administration, splints, bandages, oxygen
tanks and masks, and spinal immobilization equipment.
Advanced Life
Support Ambulances
Advanced life support ambulances have equipment
that monitors vital signs, as well as advanced drug therapy, cardiac
monitoring, oxygen and IV therapy. All services are administered by a highly
skilled paramedic or nurse.
Air Ambulances
Air ambulances include helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. Typically, a helicopter transports those in immediate need of clinical treatment, including victims of car accidents, violent crime or natural disasters when time is the absolute imperative. Fixed wing air ambulance is utilized over greater distances with acutely ill patients who patient who cannot tolerate sitting. The situation dictates the type of transportation used. Decisions on emergency transportation are made by medical personnel, while patients decide on non-emergency transport. For NEMT, a service like Flying Angels offers all the advantages and benefits you need and choices for how you want your transportation planned.
Hospital case manager conferences happen throughout the year. Some of the biggest include the American Case Management Association National Conference, the many ACMA chapter conferences around the country, and the Case Management Society of America Annual Conference and Expo
Representatives of Flying Angels will attend all conferences listed below. In many cases, this will be the fourth year in a row representatives from Flying Angels have attended these conferences. They look forward to seeing old friends again!
Each conference offers important insights for hospital case managers and healthcare professionals, including information on new tools and techniques, a chance to hear from leaders in the industry and an opportunity to network with peers.
The following are some of the biggest hospital case manager conferences for 2020.
American Case
Management Association National Conference
April 6-9, Hyatt Regency McCormick Place ,
Chicago, Illinois
The American Case Management Association National Conference brings together 1,500 case managers, transition of care and other healthcare workers from across the country for the chance to learn from peers. According to the ACMA National Conference, recent trends in case management discussed at the conference will include:
Collaboration and interdisciplinary teams
Utilization management
Social determinants of health
Value-based care
Research and innovation
Patient-centric care and engagement
In addition to case managers and transition of care workers, many other healthcare workers can benefit from attending these conferences. They include nurses, social workers, physician advisors, physicians, nurse practitioners and students.
ACMA New York Chapter, September 25, Long Island Marriott, Uniondale, New York
ACMA Western Pennsylvania Chapter, October 3, Double Tree Pittsburgh Green Tree, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
ACMA Greater Houston Chapter, October 10, The Westin Houston, Houston, Texas
ACMA Illinois Chapter, October 13, Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, Illinois
ACMA Connecticut Chapter, October 24, Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Connecticut
Case Management
Society of America Annual Conference and Expo
June 28 – July 2, Boston Convention &
Exhibition Center, Boston, Massachusetts
More than 1,500 are expected to attend this
large annual conference that showcases professional seminars, speakers, events,
product and services expositions and the chance to network – all aimed at case
management professionals.
Topics include integrated case management, shared decision making, improvement of care with effective care coordination, and improving outcomes with data and technology. There is also a CMSA Chicago Chapter Conference on March 10 at the Drury Lane Theatre in Oak Brook Terrace, Illinois.
Travel is a wonderful experience. But it also comes with its own set of challenges. To get ready for a flight, it’s important to have some in-flight entertainmentat your disposal, including games, movies, music, books and good, old-fashioned conversation.
All can help smooth out a trip and provide things to do on a plane. To sort out the various options, here’s a look at in-flight entertainmentoptions based on the emotions that people experience on a flight.
Stress is what happens
when your body reacts to what is perceived as a threat. For some, flying
represents a threat, at least at a basic instinct level that you can’t always
reason yourself out of quickly.
Stress can manifest in many
ways, both physical and emotional. For example, you might experience a
headache, sweating palms, a rumbling gastrointestinal tract, irritability,
difficulty swallowing, lack of concentration, back or neck pain and a feeling
of being overwhelmed. On flights, much of this comes from the loss of control
in your environment.
One of the best ways to combat this is to know the statistics. Those facts show that the most dangerous parts of your trip are the drives to and from the airport. In an airplane, the odds of getting into an accident are about one in 11 million or, as Elite Daily puts it, “so slim it’s almost pointless to quantify.”
But stress doesn’t always respond to logic. To distract yourself, make sure you take in-flight entertainment that brings you comfort. This can include a pillow, blanket and a tablet loaded with your favorite TV shows (now is the time to watch all those old “Friends” episodes). An engaging book is a smart choice, as are headphones and music. Also, in addition to a book, make sure you bring fun things to do on a plane that don’t require Wi-Fi, such as crossword puzzles and Sudoku.
In-Flight Entertainment When You’re Anxious
Anxiety is a bit different than stress. While stress is a physical reaction to a threat (real or perceived), anxiety are the thoughts and feelings you get that feed off that stress. They, in turn, can lead to even more stress, according to Psycom.
So, in addition to what
is listed above to deal with stress, here are some other tips for anxiety. One
is to cut down on outside input that causes you stress and anxiety, such as
turbulence. Try to sit near the center of the plane, where there is usually a
bit less turbulence. Don’t sit near a window if seeing outside causes you
anxiety. Take an aisle seat, instead.
As with all emotions, it’s better to acknowledge anxiety rather than suppress it. But don’t do what your anxious thoughts are telling you to do, because anxiety can trick common sense, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Also, while it might be tempting, now is not the time to have a few too many drinks of alcohol, as it will make things much more difficult when you land!
When You’re Tired
The change in air pressure can cause many people to feel tired and fall asleep easily. That’s just annoying to those who are sitting there, tired but wide awake. Luckily, there are DIY travel hacks that can help you get comfortable enough to really relax and catch some sleep on a flight. Some of the better ideas include bringing your own travel pillow and having headphones so you can play soothing music or sounds (make sure you have portable charger to keep your smartphone running, too). Also, a comfortable blanket can help you sleep easier.
This typically happens with less experienced travelers. There’s nothing wrong with that! Still, you’re going to have to turn that energy to something. One of the best ways to pass the time is to have a great conversation, but you might not be traveling with someone who likes to talk a lot. So, make sure to bring your own book, music or maybe catch an in-flight movie. All can give you something to focus on until you reach your destination and you can let all that excitement loose.
When You’re Injured
If you get hurt on vacation, it’s important to have planned ahead. Travel insurance can help in this case, as it operates as additional health insurance for your trip (not to be confused with trip insurance, which covers the loss of luggage). You’ll also want to consider contacting a non-emergency medical travel company to arrange your trip back home, so you can return to your own doctors and specialists as quickly as possible. These are some of the emotions you can expect during a flight, and some of the in-flight entertainment that can help you deal with them. Plane travel is safe, it’s up to you to also make it fun and enjoyable.
