Air Ambulance Company

There are two types of air ambulance service: Aeromedical Evacuation (Medevac) and Casualty Evacuation (Casevac). The difference is Medevac uses standardized and dedicated vehicle providing en route care, while Casevac is the opposite of Medevac. Casevac doesn't use dedicated vehicle and doesn't necessarily have en route care. Medevac is more like transportation from a certain medical facility to the one that provides higher level of care, while Casevac (usually in case of combat situation) is transportation from a dangerous zone to a safer one.

Medical Evacuation is also different from a normal flight because medical evacuation is more challenging due to the particular conditions and situations. For that, USA and the Commission on Air Medical Transportation System have created accreditation and requirement on each flight to ensure that all the pilots, personnel, and the aircrafts merit the service standards requirements.

An organization which provides this particular service is commonly called air ambulance company. There are two types of organization that provide this service; the first one is government company (the only government that provides air ambulance service is the United Kingdom. While others are collaborating with commercial service provider); and the second one is private company.

Company funding is provided by various sources, which are :

1. Donations

This kind of funding comes from donations provided by public and/ or some large companies as a gesture; or any other social organizations. The County Air Ambulance Trust is one of the companies that provided by donations. You can find more information about them in: http://www.countyairambulancetrust.co.uk/index.html.

2. Government subsidy

This kind of funding obviously comes from the government subsidy. Like in the United Kingdom, the parliament agrees to fund their Scottish Ambulance Air Service directly. You can find more information about them in: http://www.scottishambulanceservice.co.uk/air_ambulance.htm

3. Fee-for-service

There are other companies that get their funds from charging people for using their services. Some of them are aircraft charter companies, hospitals, and private for profits EMS systems. Almost all the air ambulance companies in Europe use this system, and they have their own organization responsibility, although for that, they must have government license first.(Nuno Ribeiro)

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