Medical flight maintenance is a systematic process and is guided by the industry best practices and rules that govern the air ambulance industry itself. Then, there is a multitude of aircraft models that demand the maintenance of different degrees. The main difference is rotor-wing and fixed-wing medical flight vehicles. The rotor-wing medical flight services are usually deployed in hard-to-reach situations like rescuing a stranded adventure seeker or a victim of a motor vehicle accident on the highways. The fixed-wing medical flight services, on the other hand, come in handy in long haul flights were the patients need to be carried for hundreds or even a thousand miles. Most medical flight companies maintain a mix of both.
Each Medical Flight Demands a Different Kind of Maintenance
Bell, Airbus, Hawker Jets, King Airs, Cessnas, Lear Jets – the list of aircraft that medical flight service providers maintain is quite huge and each comes with a different need. On top of that, there is a myriad of medical equipment that goes into each of these medical flights such as ventilators, intravenous fluid infusion equipment, ventilators, oxygen cylinders, defibrillators, and many more. Added to this is the decontamination and sanitization protocol over the existing ones due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All this translates to a huge amount of maintenance.
Allied Maintenance is Also a Factor
The hangars, training, and accreditations are just a few of the allied maintenances that come along with medical flight services. Each aspect demands specialized skills. In addition, emergency professionals need to be trained on an ongoing basis to keep up with the latest development in the industry.
All these aspects lead to better care and improved outcomes; however, they come at a cost. This is one of the reasons why medical flight charges are pretty steep, and without insurance, affording such care can be quite difficult.
