Both medical transport and emergency transport involve getting people from one location to another. Emergency transport typically is used to get a patient to a hospital quickly. Medical transport involves moving someone who needs or wants medical care during the journey.
The main difference is the situation. Those in emergency transport need to arrive at a treatment facility as fast as possible. Those who get medical transport are not usually in a hurry. They may even be on vacation. But they have medical personnel with them to ensure their medical needs are taken care of during the trip.
Reasons for Emergency Transport
If you ever are in a situation where you must dial 9-1-1, the people who arrive work in emergency transport. Typically, they use an ambulance or helicopter. What is sent depends on your medical condition or injury. Emergency personnel will send whatever vehicle they think has the best chance of keeping you alive until you reach the hospital.
The staff involved with emergency transport includes emergency medical technicians (EMT) and paramedics who can assess your condition and perform the necessary medical procedures to keep you stable until you reach the hospital.
They are experts at first-aid treatment and life support care. They report what they have seen to doctors and nurses at the hospital once they arrive.
Reasons for Medical Transport
Many who are interested in medical transport may not know that the nurses who travel with patients have training and experience in emergency medicine – at least, that is the case with Flying Angels.
Medical transport, sometimes called non-emergency medical transport (NEMT), can be used for many reasons. They typically involve air travel. Situations that could involve medical transport include:
- Traveling to see a specialist in another city
- Grandparents on a vacation to see loved ones
- Elderly parents moving to a new home
- Someone who has suffered an injury but who must travel
- Someone with a chronic medical condition
- Someone who has experienced a medical emergency in another country and is trying to get home
In any of those situations, people can hire a service that provides a flight nurse who will travel with them. The experienced nurse manages all the medical equipment needed to handle any situation, as well as manage the patient’s medication. They also have training on providing medical care at high altitudes.
Additionally, the company handles all the travel arrangements for clients and guides them through all the processes within the airport. Those are the primary differences between emergency transport and medical transport. Here’s hoping you never need either, but if you need the latter, you at least know that help is there when you need it.
