logo
  • For Case Managers

    Save Time and Energy – Let Us Coordinate Your Patient Transport

    Our Services
nurse and patient

Your Trusted Partner for Reliable Medical Escort Services

Supporting Case Managers With Comprehensive Medical Travel Assistance

As a medical escort provider, we recognize that arranging long-distance medical transport can be daunting for case managers, especially when your patient's health is at stake.

Long-distance medical transport can be complicated, time-consuming, and expensive, requiring coordination of multiple details such as air travel, in-flight medical care, and ground transportation. This complex process can be stressful for both you and your patient.

Fortunately, Flying Nurses International provides a solution with our expert medical escort services. We take care of all the necessary arrangements, providing comprehensive medical travel assistance. 

We know that the safety and well-being of your patients is your top priority. And we take pride in providing exceptional medical escort services where your patients become our patients.

Contact us now to ensure a safe and comfortable patient transfer with a professional medical escort.
Contact Us

Why Choose Our Travel Nurse Services

Aeromedical transport is highly specialized, and air ambulance services are critical for emergency evacuations. However, during the recovery phase of an illness or catastrophic event, many patients can safely travel on a commercial airliner with the assistance of our skilled and licensed registered nurse medical escorts.

Unfortunately, many healthcare facilities lack an established travel assistance program, leading to minimal clinical expertise in assessing a patient's transport needs. This can result in unnecessary prolonged hospital stays and increased costs. Some patients or organizations may resort to private air ambulance companies, which can be unjustifiably expensive. Others may travel home with medically untrained family members with little or no aeromedical transport experience.

With over two decades of commercial flight experience, we conduct a thorough evaluation and determine the safest mode of transportation for your patient to reach their desired destination. Our medical escort service includes comprehensive medical travel assistance that prioritizes the care and safety of your patients throughout the entire journey.

How We Provide Medical Travel Assistance

As a case manager, you can rest assured that Flying Nurses International provides exceptional medical escort services that takes the burden of planning off your hands. Our Nurse Coordinators are specially trained to assess patients for travel and offer comprehensive evaluations, recommendations, and assistance in implementing the transfer process.

We handle all ground and commercial airline transportation, ensuring patients receive seamless, secure bedside-to-bedside transport. Safety is our top priority, and we adopt a conservative approach in all aspects of our medical escort service. We meet all FAA safety criteria and have implemented stringent safety protocols to prioritize the well-being of patients during the entire journey.

Medical Escort 
Scope of Care

We understand that your patients require a broad range of medical travel assistance. We specialize in assisting patients with restricted ambulation and orthopedic injuries and caring for those with behavioral health disorders and neurological injuries. Our skilled nurses can administer supplemental oxygen and provide for complex respiratory needs. Many of our patients need complete transfers from bed to chair to an aircraft seat, and we are equipped to handle such transfers.

Our medical escort service includes administering IV fluids for hydration and providing in-flight oxygen therapy as needed. We provide compassionate and personalized care throughout the journey as we know that many of our patients require fully dependent care and may face communication challenges.
woman assisting an old patient
man on a wheelchair carrying his luggage

How Our Patients Travel

At Flying Nurses International, patient safety, comfort, and respect are paramount regarding medical escort service and medical travel assistance. Therefore, our patients travel in first-class or business cabins for optimal safety and comfort.

Our skilled nurses travel in economy class when not accompanying a patient. While stretcher services can be evaluated for long-distance travel, they are rarely offered by airline carriers. Stretchers can be uncomfortable for patients, offer little privacy, and may come at a high cost.

As an alternative, some international carriers offer first-class seats that lie flat, providing a comfortable and safe option for patients. We work closely with you to discuss all appropriate options and ensure that our patients receive the highest level of care and comfort throughout their journey.

Let Our Medical Escort Service Do the Planning

For medical escort services, please contact us by phone, email, or through our website's Transport Inquiry Form. We strive to be travel-ready within 48-72 hours, depending on the specific needs of the patient and flight availability.

Preliminary Quote for Medical Travel Assistance

Our medical escort service begins with reviewing the patient's medical requirements to determine if commercial transport is suitable. We will then provide you with a preliminary quote for your consideration.

If we find that the patient is not yet ready for transport due to mobility or oxygen impairments, we will advise you on how to prepare your patient. Our goal is to see that patients receive the highest level of care and support during their journey to reach their desired destination safely and comfortably.

Initiating Medical Transport Planning

We make medical travel assistance planning simple. Once you are ready to proceed, all you need is the agreement of the patient's family and healthcare team, a receiving facility, and the proposed travel date.

Once we have these details, you will work with our skilled RN Flight Coordinator, who will handle all aspects of medical escort transport planning for you. Our team is dedicated to ensuring that every detail of your patient's journey is taken care of, so you can focus on what matters most - the care and well-being of your patients.

Your Coordinator will do the following:

Request an official medical report from the patient’s hospital records and a verbal nursing report from the health care member caring for the patient. The purpose of this is to ascertain if the patient is deemed fit to travel. After review, we will immediately make recommendations for the healthcare team to prepare the patient for travel.

Begin securing a proposed airline itinerary for the date you desire. Immediate consideration is given to ordering airline oxygen due to a 48-hour minimum notice required by carriers. We will speak with the medical department for oxygen and special medical requests. We have long term trustworthy relationships with US and international carriers which helps to expedite these procedures.

Confirm the availability of our flight nurse staff and select a nurse to travel based on the location closest to the sending or receiving facility. The nurse is also selected based on the needs of the patient.

Coordinate communication channels between hospital administration, family members, medical staff, interdisciplinary teams, case managers, insurance companies, and financial institutions.

Advise the health care team, patient, and family on the necessary steps to prepare the patient for a commercial flight.

Request specific medical orders and medical clearance documents from the discharging physician.

Organize each additional travel detail from ground transportation, layover assistance, ground and in-flight oxygen, specialized medical equipment, and offer guidance and assistance in obtaining international travel documents.

How You Can Help Us in Providing the Best Medical Travel Assistance Possible

Preparing your patient:

Oxygen: Begin weaning your patient’s oxygen level to the advised safe level for transport. Utilize your respiratory therapy interdisciplinary team. We generally request supplemental in-flight oxygen with any patient with a SAO2<95%. This will be dependent on the baseline range of the patient, along with the physician’s recommendation.

Secretions: We can manage tracheotomy patients. However, secretions cannot be tenacious or frequent. Secretions drastically dry up at altitude causing mucous plugs. Utilize your respiratory therapy team. Cultures, antibiotic therapy, and pulmonary regimen will be reviewed.

Mobility: Begin getting your patient out of bed each day or several times a day to a reclining chair. Utilize your physical therapy interdisciplinary team. Your patient does not have to support themselves in an upright position. We have options to assist. What is crucial is that your patient does not have clinical compromise when sitting, such as a drop in blood pressure, respiratory compromise, or unmanageable pain.

IVs: We can manage maintenance fluids. We cannot titrate drips for cardiac stability. This type of patient would be deemed too unstable for a commercial airline. TPN can be changed to D5 or D5/NS at the physician’s discretion. Wean IVs if possible.

NG/GT/J Tubes: They are accepted for travel. Any tube feedings will be stopped 8-10 hrs pre-flight with a bowel prep requested. During transport, the patient can be hydrated with free water via these tubes or IV access.

Pain Management: We can administer IV, PO, SQ, or IM injections and IV bolus’ as needed. Mobility and pain management is a common reason to utilize our services. Begin finding a medication regimen that works with a trial in the hospital setting. The day of departure is not the time to suggest options.

Equipment: All equipment must be portable and battery-operated. Some of the larger aircraft have plug-in options for primarily electronic audio/video equipment. This is NOT designed for dependent medical equipment.

woman and patient

Our Medical Treatment Plan

Our medical escorts adhere to a comprehensive medical treatment plan that prioritizes the safety and well-being of our patients. Under the direction of the discharging physician's medical orders, we administer medical treatment as prescribed. The sending facility prescribes and dispenses medications according to these medical orders. 

We ensure that all necessary Fitness to Fly and Airline Medical Clearances are obtained from the discharging physician and the airline carrier's medical department. In the event of an in-flight emergency, our skilled medical escort nurses are trained to perform emergency treatment following American Heart Association Basic Life Support standards. 

Contact Us for Medical Escort Services

We're available 7 days a week to provide medical travel assistance. Our team can be ready to travel within 48-72 hours, depending on patient needs and flight availability.
Contact us today. 

*Flying Nurses International is not affiliated or otherwise associated with InteliStaf or its “Flying Nurses” travel nurse staffing division.*

patient on a wheelchair wearing mask

Request a Quote

We are eager to offer any information that we may have in assisting you with this complex and timely process.

Contact Form
logo

Contact Information

Flying Nurses International, LLC
250 Palm Coast Parkway, NE
Suite 607-265
Palm Coast, FL 32137
Phone: 1-877-521-1333
Fax: 1-904-621-9924

© 2023 Flying Nurses International. All rights reserved | Sitemap