March 2009

In the highly mobile, tourist segment of our economy, we’re prepared to enjoy our experience without distraction.

Traveling overseas often creates severe, but mostly temporary, distractions for travelers who suddenly become ill or have accidents in out-of-the way places.  Breaking a leg, cracking a hip-bone, getting a kidney stone — these and many more possibilities are serious interruptions to travel.  If the travelers have foresight, they might have purchased travel insurance or trip interruption policies, either within their credit card, or separately.  There are hundreds of variations of these plans.

But what if you drive, or travel someplace in the states and have the same kind of event and you become stymied in a location hundreds/thousands of miles from home.  And what if you can’t drive back, or flying is out of the question for medical reasons, i.e. having a large cast, or requiring oxygen?  And you need to get home!

Medically escorted travel in well furnished motor coaches prepared for client/patient comfort is available in most circumstances of required travel.  Coaches are like traveling hospital rooms, with a trained nurse escort, and two experienced drivers traveling 24/7 to get you from your “stymied” location, back to a place which is familiar and where family or friends can look after your welfare.  A family member can usually travel with you, having recliners, television sets, and kitchen facilities for travel comfort.

This kind of travel is not inexpensive, but when travel is essential, it is a wonderful alternative to being alone away from home, and being sick or injured.  In most all circumstances, there is no insurance to cover the cost, but when emergencies arise, sometimes you can’t be held up by that issue.  That’s the nature of emergencies, but someone in the medical transport industry can help you bridge the exasperation of making arrangements to get you “back home” or where you want to be.

Everyone must fantasize about who is inside those huge motor coaches we see on the highways. Is it Faith Hill, or maybe Michael Jordan, or is it just some lucky rich guy who hit it big in the market and spends his time roaming the country?

Or could it be someone with a medical illness being transported home?

We’ve probably passed someone of notoriety at one time or another.  Or, we could be passing someone who is in a desperate health situation who is being moved from one location to a more desirable location to get needed medical attention, or to be near family who can better take care of the person, or who is returning home from a distant place where he or she had an accident or got real sick.  Or maybe it’s a person who is being transferred “back home” to spend his or her last days among those who love them and want to be close.

Unless you need one, you probably don’t know about these medical transports.  They are a hidden gem in our nation of high emphasis on health care.

The coaches are furnished like miniature hospital rooms with hospital type beds with rails, private bathrooms, furnished kitchen and entertainment areas for the medical staff and the family escort who may be traveling along with the patient. These medical coaches  transport people with stable medical conditions including:
* Chronic Illnesses
* Stroke
* Cancer
* Chronic Lung or Heart Conditions
* Alzheimer’s
* Dementia
* injuries due to accidents.

A medical attendant or escort is on duty for the extent of the trip, which generally travels 24/7 with two experienced drivers taking turns to expedite the travel to the destination.  They can sometimes tow a private vehicle if the family needs to return it to the patient’s destination.

The family may provide an attendant of choice: nurse, paramedic or caregiver; or more likely, the transport experience will include a qualified attendant for the trip to operate any medical equipment required for the patient’s comfort which can be arrange for the trip, such as oxygen monitoring or suction.

Next time I see one on the road, I won’t pre-judge the occupant to be someone more fortunate than me.

At any time, difficult times can happen to you regardless of your age, or where you are.  And difficult decisions have to be made.

In the extreme circumstance, you could be traveling out of the country and get sick or have an accident.  That happens more than we might realize.  But if it happens within the US borders, the needed decisions are somewhat the same but the availability to services are more under your control.  What resources were available before the internet?  It’s hard to imagine the difficulty of trying to find medical transportation before the internet.

But even now, if you do a search for the terms “medical transportation” you will find “millions” of choices to review.  The problem is that many are not at all related to your immediate transportation needs — some are seeking buyers for ambulance equipment, some for transportation across town to the doctor’s office.  These searches can be a waste of your valuable time.

So a very first question to ask would be “Do you perform long distance medical transfers?  After that, you’ll need to ask about the equipment used, how up to date it is, the attending crew, and of course, the cost.  There can be cost flexibility if your time of need is flexible — maybe you can tag onto a returning trip from another location.

Some companies only do short trips with vans, or ambulance type vehicles.  On those trips, there may not be room for a family member to travel with the patient.  The longer your trip, the greater the need for comfort and close care to the patient.

There is so much to check out, but the comfort and medical care of your loved one can be greatly enhanced if you are able to do extensive research among the “millions” of posts on the internet.

P.S.  If your loved one is in a hospital, some times the patient coordinator or social services representative may have had some experience with a transport company which they are comfortable recommending.  Patients being discharged from hospitals,  as well as nursing homes and rehab facilities and ALF’s, can also check with case managers and discharge planners who also are helpful resource people