General
Medical evacuation or Medevac is the medical extraction process of a patient from one region or country of origin to a region or a country where health care and handling of medical costs are more appropriate given their situation and medical condition.
The term medical evacuation was originally used in the military, but nowadays it is more and more used in civilian life, usually when the medevac exceeds a « reasonable distance » from the countries concerned.
The term Medevac is used in particular:
– When evacuating a tourist victim of an accident or suffering an illness in a country where medical care conditions are not optimal, to his country of origin
– For people suffering from various medical conditions that cannot be handled in their countries of origin, especially due to an estimated insufficient technical platform, who are therefore evacuated to a destination where they can benefit from appropriate care and treatment.
Medical evacuation according to Evadeô Pro
This is the main category of civilian medical evacuation that Evadeô Pro has chosen to position itself: Evadeô Pro now wants to be the undisputed partner for the organization, management and administrative and logistical handling of medical evacuation to France, of all persons residing outside of French territory.
Medevac
The term Medevac is the abbreviation of the English expression « medical evacuation »; this term is the English translation of the French Evasan. However, the term is sometimes used to refer to the medical unit in charge of the evacuation, or to the vehicle. It can refer to transportation by air (helicopter, aircraft), land (ambulance) or sea (hospital ship).
Organization of medical evacuation
The organizational procedures of a civil medical evacuation may vary depending on the country, the social and medical policies in place, or the structure that initiates and supports the financial aspects of medevac.
In general, the following steps are commonly observed for most medical evacuation to France:
1. Observation by the patient’s local doctor or a local health facility of a pathological situation requiring the establishment of a medical evacuation
2. Transmission of medical reports and of an application for evacuation to local agencies to approve and / or initiate the medical evacuations
3. Liaising by these local organizations with French organizations offering medevac management
4. Search, definition and proposal of an appropriate course of care by the French organization in charge of managing medevac
5. Once the proposed course of care has been approved by the local body in charge of decision-making, the evacuated patient’s course of care within the French medical facilities is planned and scheduled precisely
6. Reception of the patient at the airport and full management of his course of care by the French management structure / coordination of the care for an optimal course of the evacuated patient’s stay
7. Patient is driven back to the airport to return to his country of origin, with provision of the medical procedure reports as well as any prescriptions specifying the recommended behavior once back home
Note: Steps 3-7 are possible only if local organizations liaise with a recognized French structure that has a strong network in the medical field and is able to anticipate and manage the full organization of the medical evacuation of a patient, regardless of his medical condition.
Financial support
Depending on the situation, the financial support for medical evacuation can be ensured by:
– a health insurance, social protection or mutual insurance organization of which the patient is a member as a result of his status as an employee, civil servant or external contributor
– a public institution or authority,
– a state department or ministry
– the associative fabric of the country where the patient resides (emergency medical associations, humanitarian associations)
– the patient himself and his family or friends
Evadeô Pro’s services therefore target all categories of the public, institutional and private, wishing to initiate, regardless of the degree of urgency and the identified medical condition, medical evacuation for a patient in their care, or for themselves.