Patient First Air Medical Transport Alliance
Air Medical Transport Alliance formed by Six Respected Air Ambulance Programs
(BIRMINGHAM, AL – March 3, 2009) AirMed International, the country’s leading air ambulance company, has joined with representatives of six other respected air medical programs to create the Patient First Air Medical Transport Alliance (AMT Alliance). The AMT Alliance was formed on the position that air medical service missions can be completed safely and that those services are necessary for positive patient outcomes for victims of trauma and serious medical conditions. The position paper created by the AMT Alliance was presented to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) during the 2009 NTSB hearings on air medical safety held in Washington, D.C.
The AMT Alliance seeks to preserve patient safety and enhance the quality of patient care through a more coordinated air medical transport system. This includes eliminating existing gaps and overlaps between the federal government’s oversight of aviation aspects of air medical transports and the states’ oversight of the medical aspects. The AMT Alliance takes the position that the public has the expectation that all air medical transport programs are of comparable level of care, safety and efficiency, and this can be achieved through consistent, reciprocal regulations and needed efficiencies.
The complete Patient First Air Medical Transport Alliance position paper can be found on the AirMed International website at the following link: www.airmed.com/Patient-First.
Founding members of the Patient First Air Medical Transport Alliance are Thomas Allenstein of Medflight, Columbus, Ohio; Paul Drucker, Jeffrey Stearns, and Gary Wingrove of Mayo Clinic Medical Transport, Rochester, Minnesota; Kevin High of Vanderbilt LifeFlight, Nashville, Tennessee; Thomas Judge of Lifeflight of Maine, Bangor, Maine; Kathleen Mayer of Flight For Life Colorado, Denver, Colorado; Jason Schwebach of Medcenter Air, Charlotte, North Carolina; Denise Treadwell of AirMed International, Birmingham, Alabama.
