Air Ambulance Services/ Careers

[voltage1256 42]

I was curious if anyone has further information on the private sector of Air Ambulance transport as far as fixed wing (airplane) patient & organ transport operations go as compared to the helicopter county and state run emergency service jobs such as Lifenet and STAT. I'd love to intertwine my two potential careers but I am a little on guard as to the quality and legitimacy of this side of the industry as far as safety and qualifications if anyone would like to chime in it is appreciated as always.

Examples:

http://www.angelmedflight.com/

http://www.usairambulance.net/

[x635 4,066]

Given all the recent aeromedical crashes, I personally wouldn't want to place myself in a helicoper, at least until the private aeromedical companies get their acts together.

One very large and prominent companies to work for is PHI:

https://www.facebook.com/PHIinc?sk=app_116641731731619

It's also a great place to get experience.

[voltage1256 42]

I'm looking towards the pilot side of the job and there are serious flaws in the helicopter transport side of the business. That being said I haven't heard much on the airplane side of it.

[FDNYDCHI 38]

one of my friends has the best jobs being flight paramedic in key west FL he just got his RN degree too

[Alpinerunner 61]

I know Angelflight is a volunteer organization. My friend did it for a long time and quite the oposite of a job, it's expensive! You don't get reimbursed for fuel and engine-run time, so while noble and generous of you, it will cost you. I'm not sure about other fixed-wing patient transport operations.

[Guest STAT - 131073]

As a certified flight paramedic I have experience on both the ground CCT and Areomedical side of the house. Yes there have been quite a few crashes in the last few years. I do not want to go into why the flights went down that is for the media. You want to know about doing EMS and being a pilot. All of the areomedical services that I am familiar with separate the pilots and the medical crews. Its actually a safety thing. The pilot should be concentrating on and concerned with flying the aircraft and not with patient care. So my sugestion is that you become a pilot and work on making the areomedical industry as safe as possible and find a job doing EMS/ Critical Care Transport in another service. Air transport has inherent risks all we can do is do the best we,as providers, can to mitigate those risks. I wish you the best of luck in your quest!!

[rayrider 94]

My wifes cousin works as a flight medic up in boston. They do helicopter, ambulance and fixed wing aircraft tours. Not sure if private or municipal.

[voltage1256 42]

As a certified flight paramedic I have experience on both the ground CCT and Areomedical side of the house. Yes there have been quite a few crashes in the last few years. I do not want to go into why the flights went down that is for the media. You want to know about doing EMS and being a pilot. All of the areomedical services that I am familiar with separate the pilots and the medical crews. Its actually a safety thing. The pilot should be concentrating on and concerned with flying the aircraft and not with patient care. So my sugestion is that you become a pilot and work on making the areomedical industry as safe as possible and find a job doing EMS/ Critical Care Transport in another service. Air transport has inherent risks all we can do is do the best we,as providers, can to mitigate those risks. I wish you the best of luck in your quest!!

STAT, you hit it right on the money! I should clarify what I meant, I am looking into the pilot side of the job, are there reputable companies and services who perform these missions/ flights? my other passion lies within Emergency Services and I figured that pilots would indeed be a completely different crew from the medics as per the safety factors. I'd imagine it would be a nice way to have an aviation based job and somewhat be involved around EMS and CCT.

Edited February 7, 2012 by voltage1256

[voltage1256 42]

My wifes cousin works as a flight medic up in boston. They do helicopter, ambulance and fixed wing aircraft tours. Not sure if private or municipal.

Rayrider it'd be interesting to hear more about this company especially if they are fixed wing municipal, haven't found much out there on them. Thanks!

Edited February 7, 2012 by voltage1256

[rayrider 94]

Rayrider it'd be interesting to hear more about this company especially if they are fixed wing municipal, haven't found much out there on them. Thanks!

[/quote

Bostonmedflight.org. she is a critical care nurse.

[voltage1256 42]

Thanks!

[xfirefighter484x 234]

Given all the recent aeromedical crashes, I personally wouldn't want to place myself in a helicoper, at least until the private aeromedical companies get their acts together.

Statistically still safer than driving an ambulance on the ground....

[helicopper 1,050]

I was curious if anyone has further information on the private sector of Air Ambulance transport as far as fixed wing (airplane) patient & organ transport operations go as compared to the helicopter county and state run emergency service jobs such as Lifenet and STAT. I'd love to intertwine my two potential careers but I am a little on guard as to the quality and legitimacy of this side of the industry as far as safety and qualifications if anyone would like to chime in it is appreciated as always.

Examples:

http://www.angelmedflight.com/

http://www.usairambulance.net/

STAT, you hit it right on the money! I should clarify what I meant, I am looking into the pilot side of the job, are there reputable companies and services who perform these missions/ flights? my other passion lies within Emergency Services and I figured that pilots would indeed be a completely different crew from the medics as per the safety factors. I'd imagine it would be a nice way to have an aviation based job and somewhat be involved around EMS and CCT.

Lifenet, formerly known as STAT-Flight, is not a municipal service. It is part of Air Methods, a nationwide private company providing air ambulance services. I would say they are indeed a reputable company. Other agencies that provide air medical services in our area would be the New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland State Police, the US Park Police (DC area mostly), and local municipal aviation units (too many to name but most require sworn personnel to serve as their pilots). NY and Maryland hire a limited number of civilian pilots (not sure about NJ or Delaware) but the required experience level is very high and dramatically limits the employment prospects.

There are other large companies that provide air medical services. If you're already a pilot and have some experience, HELI-EXPO is the place to go. That is the annual helicopter conference/convention/expo and virtually everyone associated with a helicopter (manufacturers, maintenance services, parts suppliers, vendors, trainers, etc.) are there. It's actually this weekend in Dallas and they usually have a "job fair" during the expo if you're up for a road trip. If you're not yet a pilot, you should first pursue getting your license because there is no option for "training from within". You have to be a rated pilot to even be considered for a job in the medevac world (and most require at least 2500 hours pilot experience - that's actual flying time not duty time). This applies to the rotorcraft side of the house. I'm far less familar with the fixed wing side.

As for safety, it is indeed the primary job of the pilot to insure that the flight is completed safely and the industry is currently working through the issues they've identified from recent crashes to improve safety from the systemic perspective.

Medical personnel are not pilots and pilots are not medical personnel. Others have explained that point well. There are probably very few companies that would allow you to work both the medical side and the pilot side anyway.

With regard to "quality and legitimacy", these operators are very closely regulated by the FAA and the applicable healthcare oversight entities so there are not a lot of fly-by-night (pun intended) medevac operations. The accidents that have cast a negative light across the industry are too across the industry and not directly attributed to any single company or location. There's an inherent risk to the medevac world and most of the time that risk is well managed and flights are completed without incident. Unfortunately, when a mishap occurs it garners tremendous media attention so but it's safer than you may think.

Good luck!

[helicopper 1,050]

Statistically still safer than driving an ambulance on the ground....

Please stop!!! You're cracking me up!

You can't compare the two for a multitude of reasons but the one I like best is that if we required 2500 hours of driving experience before letting someone behind the wheel of an ambulance there'd be almost none on the road.

[traumajunky 5]

You can check out the requirements of different services mostly by looking on company websites, or if you are curious you can always contact the company for more information.

http://www.mercyflight.org/content/pages/staff -Mercyflight WNY does mainly helo transports but will do fixed wing flights when needed based in Buffalo, Batavia, and Olean NY.

http://www.mercyflightcentral.org/index.htm - Mercy Flight Central based in Canandaigua and Marcellus NY, also offer fixed wing and helo transport.

http://www.nemspa.org/mc/page.do;jsessionid=BDB16010F411A346894D3D268E109B83.mc1?sitePageId=75801 - National EMS Pilots Association

[voltage1256 42]

Great information and tips! As always, thanks guys!