Can a bedridden person be transported to or from the USA or Canada?
Yes, airline passengers who cannot sit up straight during a commercial flight to or from North America don’t necessarily need to be transported by air ambulance. Major airlines like Air India, Emirates, Turkish Airlines, Qatar Airways, and Etihad provide so-called “commercial airline stretcher services”: they rent out a special stretcher that can be installed in the cabin of a passenger aircraft upon request.
This option is especially suitable for bedbound patients who need the financial means to pay for an air ambulance charter on a long-haul flight to or from North America. Stretcher transport on a commercial flight can be up to 70% cheaper than a dedicated air ambulance.
Can any bedridden patient be transported on a routine flight?
No, not. If a sick patient can be transported on a commercial flight depends on several factors.
Someone too weak, in a coma, or in so much pain that sitting on a seat of an airliner is not an option are considered “stretcher patients,” but they can only be transported if the route is served by an airline and aircraft type that can carry a stretcher onboard.
Before the airline can install a stretcher on the airplane for a bedridden passenger, they need to follow their procedures to guarantee patient safety and the safety of all others onboard the flight. Every stretcher request is followed by a thorough medical screening by the airline doctor or a medical advisor contracted by the airline.
They’ll request medical documentation from the treating physician and do a risk assessment based on the patient’s condition and the expected changes that will occur when the patient is at a high altitude for a prolonged time. The airline doctor will permit the stretcher transport or decline the request based on the information provided.
For example, bedridden patients cannot travel on commercial flights if they present an infection risk to other passengers onboard. A bedbound patient who needs a lot of oxygen to breathe may not be accommodated on a commercial flight. And a terminally ill patient can be refused transport onboard a commercial plane if there is a significant risk that he’ll pass away during the journey.
Can a seriously ill patient be transported on a commercial flight?
Is a stretcher operation logistically possible on the route? It also depends on factors other than the condition of the patient. For example: if the itinerary involves two flights with a transit, can the airline offload the stretcher patient from one flight and get onto the next flight in time?
And also, can the necessary patient care be safely managed in the cabin of an airliner, with limited space and 300 other people around?
A stretcher patient should always be accompanied by one or two medically-trained professionals, so-called “commercial medical escorts.” These escorts are doctors, nurses, or paramedics with extra training to work onboard commercial aircraft.
Like in an ambulance on the ground, a medical transport professional carries all equipment and supplies necessary to safely care for the stretcher patient, like oxygen, a suction device, vital signs monitor, medication, and intravenous fluids.
Most bedbound patients can be safely cared for during a commercial flight, even if they depend on a feeding tube or a tracheostomy. If a stretcher patient is declined by an airline, it is often not because of the care needs, but because of the medical condition, for example, in cases that are high risk for blood clots, bleeding, or oxygen starvation.
Some airlines, like Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, can adapt their cabin to such an extent that even artificially ventilated patients can be transported, escorted by a medical team of an intensive care unit. If the journey is especially long, this may be the only affordable option to transport a bedridden patient from one country to another.
Do North American airlines carry stretchers?
That’s the catch when a stretcher patient needs to travel to or from Canada or the USA. None of the American or Canadian airlines offer commercial airline stretcher services. Stretcher patients cannot be transported on flights operated by the so-called. “mainline “carriers” in North America like Air Canada, WestJet, Delta, United, or American Airlines.
Therefore, when a patient needs to be transported trans-pacific, they automatically depend on Asian carriers like Japan Airlines, ANA, Cathay Pacific, Korean Air, Asiana, or Philippine Airlines. Patients from the East will fly with European airlines like KLM, Lufthansa, and Air France or, increasingly, commercial carriers in the Gulf region or Africa, who offer excellent facilities at their airport hubs for stretcher patients who are transiting from one flight to another.
Commercial airline options are also minimal if a stretcher patient needs to be transported between Canada or the USA and the Caribbean, South America, or Central America. Most of these routes are served by air ambulance charters.
The same applies to any route within North America, like California to New York, Florida to Canada, British Columbia to Ontario: a patient who cannot sit at all, cannot be transported on a commercial flight, and will have to choose between a long-distance ground ambulance transfer, a stretcher charter or an air ambulance.
How can I arrange a stretcher transfer on an international flight?
The most logical first step is approaching an experienced medical repatriation company familiar with arranging international transfers for bedridden patients. JET COMPANION is a Canadian company that arranges stretcher transports over long distances. That can be a non-stop long-haul flight and a multi-flight itinerary with one or two stopovers.
For patients traveling from Asia to North America, the Middle East to South America, Europe to the Pacific, or North America to Africa.
We first investigate which airlines and routes are available to transport the stretcher patient between the point of origin and the final destination. Is a direct flight possible, or is a stopover necessary?
The shortest route is only sometimes the best option. Sometimes the journey starts with a local ambulance transfer by road to an airport further away so that we can catch the most suitable flight with a stretcher onboard. And depending on different factors, we might not land directly at the end destination but in a city nearby,
The process is complex; various departments and service providers get involved in different mission stages. It always takes several days from when a request reaches us until the patient can be picked up.
JET COMPANION arranges one or more medical escorts for the patient and services from “bed to bed.” It means the patient is picked up in the hospital, at home, or wherever the patient is.
A highly qualified healthcare professional stays with the patient throughout the flight. And upon arrival, an ambulance waits to take the patient to the final destination. In most cases, a hospital is expecting the patient’s arrival.
What is the cost of transporting a patient on a commercial airline stretcher? on a commercial plane?
Stretcher services onboard a commercial plane cost several thousands of Dollars. The exact cost depends on the route, the urgency of the request, and the level of care needed to transport the stretcher patient safely. Each airline has its way of calculating the cost of stretcher services.
They might charge for an x number of seats or have a fixed rate for their services. Not only does the patient require a spot in the cabin of the aircraft, but also a list of skilled services that are provided behind the scenes to make the stretcher transport possible, ranging from special vehicles on the tarmac to mobilizing customs, immigration and airport security officials away from their workplaces in the airport terminal, to come to the patient onboard the airplane.
JET COMPANION’s medical professionals are licensed and certified. They keep up with yearly training and are insured to work internationally. On top of all the aviation-related expenses, there is the cost of organizing medical care during transport.
All work in Canada’s busy public health care system as doctors, nurses, and paramedics when not flying. When deployed on an international mission, they are away for several days while they travel to pick up the patient, escort the patient to the destination, and then travel back to their base airport. Then there is the cost of ground ambulances, equipment, and medication.
To make it less complicated for everyone, JET COMPANION, like most aeromedical companies that organize international medical transports, present only one invoice to the client for all cost from bed to bed. The aeromedical company then pays the airline and all service providers involved.
International medical transportation is never cheap, especially for individuals needing to be transported on a stretcher. There is no such thing as a “budget-friendly airline stretcher” with a low-cost airline.
But when a stretcher is the only option to transfer a patient over a long distance, transporting with a commercial airline is always significantly cheaper than renting an air ambulance charter. You can save up to 70%!
When an uninsured patient is hospitalized overseas and temporarily bedridden, it is often cheaper to transport on a stretcher as soon as medical clearance is provided instead of waiting until the patient can be discharged in a wheelchair.
In need of medical repatriation but no travel insurance?
A medical crisis in a foreign country without proper travel insurance coverage is highly stressful. Unfortunately, many families get into this situation each year. Other than traveling without travel insurance, a serious medical emergency can quickly exhaust the maximum allowance a travel insurance company has agreed to cover.
A travel insurance company can also decline to pay for medical repatriation based on pre-existing conditions, negative travel advisories, or other considerations.
On top of the medical crisis, the financial crisis is the same if the family needs to pay out of pocket to bring the patient back home, regardless of whether the patient is uninsured, underinsured, or insurance-declined.
Most public or private health insurance plans do not cover the high cost of being hospitalized abroad. The patient must often pay a deposit for treatment and all hospital bills before leaving the country.
Also, consider that a travel insurance company may not necessarily pay to transport the patient home but may opt to arrange transport to a suitable contracted hospital in the region, where the patient can receive adequate care until sufficiently recovered to take a regular flight home.
When it is unclear if insurance will pay for all the unexpected costs of a medical emergency overseas, many families face an uncontrolled situation in which the hospital bills keep growing each day that the patient is hospitalized abroad.
Often, families opt to “stop the financial bleeding” by transporting the patient first and sorting out reimbursement by the travel insurance company later.
Luckily, international patient transport can be arranged directly by a family or healthcare provider anywhere in the world without the intervention of a travel insurance company.
JET COMPANION regularly works with families, friends, or employers of patients stranded abroad when they have to organize their medical transport to get back home. Financial support is not always possible, and funds come from savings, loans, re-mortgaging, retirement funds, and even fundraising initiatives!
If you are in a situation where you need to explore options to transport a bedridden patient onboard a commercial flight, you can count on our professional advice free of charge.
Contact us through our operations center to discuss what is possible.
JET COMPANION is based in Canada but organizes long-distance stretcher transfers worldwide.