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Author Medi-Ops Team Categories Ambulance Services, Flight Services

Spinal Injury Patients: How to Ensure Safe Transportation

Transporting patients with spine or spinal cord injuries can be a painful and complicated process, especially if the transport is uncurated. Before being admitted to a specialty care center, individuals with acute spinal cord injuries (SCI) must make repeated transfers between rooms, wards, and departments, or even between other hospitals. The goal is to maintain full spinal alignment throughout any movement and handling activities if there is a reasonable suspicion of acute SCI. On every occasion, gentle handling, positioning, and turning can prevent or greatly minimize patient pain and discomfort. It also lowers the risk of skin injury and secondary spinal cord injuries. Here is all you need to know about the transportation of spinal injury patients.

How to Identify a Spinal Injury Patient?

Do not move the person if you suspect a back or neck (spinal) injury. Permanent paralysis and other significant consequences are possible outcomes. Assume a person has a spinal injury if they have any of the following symptoms:

  • There is evidence of a brain injury, as well as a change in the person’s state of consciousness over time.
  • The person is in excruciating agony in his or her neck or back.
  • A significant amount of force has been applied to the back or head as a result of an injury.
  • The person feels weak, numb, or paralyzed, and can’t control his or her limbs, bladder, or intestines.
  • The neck or body is twisted or positioned unusually.

What to Do, if You Suspect Someone to Have a Spinal Injury?

  • Seek immediate medical assistance.
  • Maintain the person’s stillness: To prevent movement, place heavy towels or rolled sheets on both sides of the neck, or keep the head and neck in place.
  • Move your head and neck as little as possible: As much first aid as you can while keeping the person’s head and neck still. Begin CPR if there are no signs of circulation (breathing, coughing, or movement), but do not tilt the head back to access the airway. Gently grab the jaw with your fingers and lift it forward. Start chest compressions if the subject has no pulse.
  • Wear your helmet at all times: Remove the helmet if the person is wearing one. If you need to get to the inside of a football helmet, remove the facemask.
  • Don’t go at it alone: You’ll need at least one other person if you have to roll the individual because he or she is vomiting, choking on blood, or you need to make sure the person is still breathing. Work together to keep the wounded person’s head, neck, and back aligned while rolling them to one side, with one of you at the head and the other at the injured person’s side.

Transporting Patients With Spinal Cord Injuries

Patients who have sustained a serious spinal cord injury may require months of treatment and rehabilitation at spinal cord injury hospitals and treatment facilities. These facilities could be rather far away from the hospital where the patient received their initial treatment. After the patient has been stabilized, MediOps services are the best option for transporting the patient to a new treatment center that is several hours away. To ensure effective transportation, your means of transport should be customized with the following:

1. Firm, Cushioned Surface for Support

The restraints must be firm enough to allow cardiopulmonary resuscitation to be administered, and they must be adjustable to reduce patient movement during transport and side-to-side rotation.

2. Side-to-Side Rotation

The mode of conveyance should allow for side-to-side surface rotation, which is beneficial in reducing pulmonary, cardiovascular, and skin breakdown issues.

3. Trendelenburg/Reverse Trendelenburg

The patient’s head or feet should be able to be elevated and lowered 15 degrees.

4. Integrated Traction

Shall be engineered to sustain consistent force traction when the surface rotates side-to-side, with traction levels ranging from O-65 pounds in 5-pound increments. Traction will be provided for the cervical spine, upper and lower extremities, and will be independent of acceleration.

5. Patient Accessibility

Medical workers must be able to administer routine and emergency nursing care with ease. The surface must allow access to the occipital, thoracic, and rectal areas so that patient care can be performed without removing the patient from the surface or jeopardizing the spine’s stability and alignment.

6. The Radiolucent Surface

Must be built to allow X-rays of the patient’s complete spinal column, chest, and lower abdomen without removing the patient from the surface.

7. Vacuum Mattresses Are Comfortable for Spinal Injury Patients

They reduce tissue interface pressure during the transportation of patients.

8. Spinal Board

A spine board makes it easy to transfer a spinal injury patent from an ambulance stretcher. You might consider having a spinal board while transporting a patient. A patient can be placed on a spine board in a variety of ways. The technique employed will be determined by the amount of space available and the patient’s position inside that space. Throughout the process, use a c-collar or manual cervical in-line stabilization to avoid spinal compression or traction. The patient can be slid onto the backboard, feet first or head first, for lengthwise extrication, such as from a vehicle seat. 

During this procedure, the patient must be moved as a whole. Place one end of the backboard on the automobile’s seat or doorsill. At least two other rescuers move the patient’s body onto the board while one stabilizes the opposite end of the board. 

To preserve neurological function and prevent further injury from spinal instability, it is critical to reducing unintentional spinal motion during transportation of patients with cervical spine injuries.  A variety of transportation methods can be used to deliver injured people to the nearest definitive care facility. The form of transportation chosen is determined by the patient’s overall medical condition, the distance to the next capable facility, and the resources available.

Why Choose Us?

Medi-Ops offers medical services that you can trust. We are a technology-enabled medical logistics and transportation company that brings a fresh approach to medical supply chains. Our objective is to reinvent the business by harnessing our team’s culture of creativity and compassion; producing a more reliable, efficient, and sustainable industry. Our experience is in planning and coordinating all elements of medical transportation, both emergency and non-emergent.  This includes both air and ground medical couriers, ambulance transportation, NEMT transportation, and various professional services. If you need to customize your transportation, contact us today!

Author Medi-Ops Team Categories Ambulance Services, Courier Services, Flight Services

An Overview of AI-Powered Medical Logistics

In modern healthcare, timely and accurate patient transport is critical to achieving positive patient outcomes. However, coordinating transport between providers, facilities, patients, and choosing the best routes and transport methods can be challenging. 

As the adoption of AI in healthcare helps streamline medical processes and increase efficiency, machine learning algorithms are being used to manage the complex medical logistics surrounding patient transport.

Manual scheduling for medical transport can be a time-consuming and often frustrating process. Scheduling professionals in the patient transport industry spend hours each week compiling transport requests from dozens of care providers, assessing weather conditions and traffic patterns, coordinating with hospital staff to ensure patient readiness for transport, and choosing the appropriate means of transport based on patient needs. 

AI-powered medical logistics takes much of this burden off healthcare organizations by managing transportation scheduling, routing, and coordination in one interface. Read on to learn how Medi-Ops is helping organizations increase efficiency when coordinating patient transport.

Who Are Medi-Ops?

Efficient scheduling and coordination of patient transport are essential to the health of patients, caregivers, and healthcare organizations. Medi-Ops is a technology-enabled medical logistics and transportation organization that manages the complex coordination of patient transport or medical courier services for a variety of healthcare organizations. 

To provide a better medical logistics experience for patients, caregivers, and providers, Medi-Ops has developed multiple algorithm-driven solutions to help with the transport coordination process. 

We use several inputs related to specific transport services such as patient condition and shipment urgency and leverage AI and deep machine learning to optimize transport selection. 

Our expert dispatchers are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and highly experienced to coordinate emergent and non-emergent medical transportation, including NEMT transportation, ground, and air medical couriers, unmanned aerial services, and ambulance transportation.

What is the Importance of Machine Learning and AI in Medical Logistics?

With AI already being rolled out in the healthcare industry to perform robotic surgeries, precision medicine, and streamline medical billing and coding, it is no surprise that AI is catching on in other parts of the healthcare organization. Medical logistics is one aspect of healthcare that AI is positively impacting.

Every day, healthcare professionals are tasked with completing necessary medical transports that range from assisting patients with rehabilitation needs to transferring unstable and critical patients from one medical facility to another. 

Efficient coordination of timely patient transport is key to the success of patient outcomes, caregiver satisfaction, and healthcare organizations. A manual, spreadsheet-driven approach to planning medical logistics is time-consuming and often results in errors due to the complex coordination necessary for patient transport. 

At Medi-Ops, we use deep machine learning and other AI technologies to provide a more efficient means of coordinating patient transport. This helps ensure patient safety and caregiver satisfaction while increasing the healthcare organization’s efficiency.

How Does Medi-Ops Ensure Reliable Medical Logistics?

Reliable medical logistics in the healthcare industry is increasingly important in today’s complex healthcare environment. At Medi-Ops, we strive to provide efficient medical logistics coordination, accurate patient routing information, and quick dispatch to ensure accurate patient transport. 

We have leveraged artificial intelligence and deep machine learning to ensure reliable medical logistics. The Medi-Ops proprietary dispatch system accesses multiple data sets, including patient condition, the urgency of transport, flight availability, weather conditions, traffic patterns, and more, to determine the best means of transport. 

This helps to eliminate inefficiencies and increase the accuracy of patient transport. AI and deep machine learning algorithms also manage real-time routing and coordination of all transport services and updates to patient status and care information. 

What Kind of Data Does Medi-Ops Collect?

To provide accurate patient transport, Medi-Ops collects a variety of data that is used by our AI-powered medical logistics system. Some of the data we collect include:

  • Patient condition – what is the overall status of the patient? Is the patient injured? Do they have any breathing complications or need to be monitored by a doctor in transit? This will help select the best transport mode to ensure the patient receives the appropriate level of care.
  • Patient location – where is the patient located, and can they safely get to the destination point? Is the location accessible by road? What is the traffic like in that area? How long will it take to get the patient safely to the destination point at their current condition?
  • The urgency of shipment – how soon does the transport need to happen? Emergencies, non-emergents, or somewhere in between. How quickly do we have to get the patient from point A to point B?
  • Medical transport needs – what type of transport is necessary for this particular patient? What does the condition and destination need? What is the best-suited mode of transport?
  • Weather conditions – are there any weather conditions in the area that might affect transport? Are there high winds, heavy rain, or other inclement weather that could make transportation unsafe?

Once the Medi-Ops dispatchers have this information, we can work with our medical transportation network to determine the most efficient and safe transport option for the patient and medical staff. We monitor all orders 24/7 and ensure that patient and caregiver safety is always the top priority.

Get Started with Medi-Ops

There are many benefits for healthcare organizations by using AI to manage patient transport logistics, including reduced passenger wait times, proactive notification of patient status, and real-time updates from the field so that providers can stay informed. 

Machine learning and AI technologies have allowed Medi-Ops to develop a more efficient transportation dispatch system that ensures safer, more reliable patient transport. Medi-Ops is a leader in patient transport coordination for hospitals and medical groups, using our expertise to improve the patient experience. By leveraging AI and deep learning algorithms, we can provide the best medical transport solutions to ensure efficient medical courier, inter-facility transfers, and optimize the best route for evacuation and emergency transport. To learn more about how Medi-Ops can help your organization, book a demo with one of our expert coordinators.

Author Medi-Ops Team Categories Blood Bank, Courier Services, Flight Services

Next Flight Out (NFO) White Paper

Last weekend, one of our blood banks in Denver, Colorado required us to transport blood to a hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado. Typically a 5h41m transport, mudslides in Colorado had caused a variety of road closures between Denver and Colorado, increasing transport times to almost 7 hours. This would have bumped the transport price to over $800. Given the ramifications of the patient who needed blood, we needed to find another option. 

As an Indirect Air Carrier (IAC), designated by the TSA, DHS, and FAA, Medi-Ops is honored to be able to provide Next Flight Out (NFO) services for our clients. Utilizing NFO allows us to ship blood, organs, and other human specimens via commercial airlines and our private network of operators. This service allows us to save even more lives while lowering costs for our clients.

Instead of driving the blood, we evaluated multiple flights and their cost effectiveness, while also considering time implications. Including the flight (scheduled through our NFO abilities), and the ground transport costs, we were able to lower the cost to 43% of the original ground transportation. We were also able to save hours of time, benefiting the patients in Grand Junction, and increasing access to care. 

This service is often a fantastic alternative to longer transports of a variety of time requirements. Because we are an IAC, you can contact us to verify a known shipper. You also will have access to our 24/7 dispatch center, our unique algorithms, our private network of operators, and cost savings of this method of transport. We are also able to support your organization in its process of becoming a known shipper, or we can help ship unknown cargo.

Author Medi-Ops Team Categories Courier Services, Flight Services

Next Flight Out Services

NFO, also known as next flight out, is a service offered by an Indirect Air Carrier (IAC) such as Medi-Ops. This allows organizations to ship blood, organs, and other medical specimens via commercial airlines and our private network of operators. This service is more economical than an aircraft charter and provides a rapid and secure method of transport.

There are more than 45,000 domestic flights each day that have the capability to transport cargo. By utilizing our software, we are able to locate the nearest origin and destination airports. We then can identify the optimal flight, departing and arriving, at these airports as well as the drive time to and from each. Because of this, next flight out is a great option when time is of the essence for your cargo.

Once the transport order has been confirmed, we immediately dispatch appropriate units. The shipment is picked up, taken to the airport, and tendered to the airline or aircraft. We monitor your package during the entire transportation process and you can follow this progress using our software. Upon flight arrival, we retrieve your shipment and deliver it to its final destination.

NFO shipments tend to be time critical, this is why it is important to use an IAC! We are the party that ensures the safety of your package throughout its journey. We work directly with the TSA, DHS, and FAA to maintain the highest standards. Reach out today to learn more, and open an account! We look forward to serving you!

Click here to read our white paper on NFO Services!

Author Medi-Ops Team Categories Blood Bank, Courier Services

Blood Bank Logistics

Here at Medi-Ops, we primarily use our courier services to serve blood banks. While there are a variety of industries that could benefit from our innovative courier system, we recognize that blood banks across the United States are widely underserviced! While everyone agrees that blood donation and processing are vital to healthcare and human life, innovation, technology, and external services available to blood banks are almost non-existent! This is where Medi-Ops enters. 

When a patient needs blood, the hospital lab technicians call a blood bank. The blood bank processes and packs the blood in their labs… it’s all ready to go! But how does it get back to hospitals? That is where we come in. The blood bank lab techs call our 24/7 dispatch center and we get to work. First, we determine the perfect mode of transport – air or ground, emergent or STAT, and then find the courier to do it! We partner with a variety of courier companies; this way, no blood is left delayed, and no patients suffer. Whether we use internal couriers, or a courier from another company, we use our state of the art software to track every order.

Our software allows clients to place, track, and alter their orders. They can watch the order at every step along the way – from confirmed, en route, on scene… all the way to delivery! The blood bank techs will have complete confidence that their order was completed and delivered safely – this is why we require each blood delivery to confirm a point of delivery and be completed with a signature from the receiving lab tech. 

We pride ourselves in using technology and a variety of professional services to better the healthcare field – this is why we focus on serving blood banks across the country and why we will continue to do so. 

As always, if you have any questions, or would like to place an order, please reach out to our 24/7 dispatch center at 1 (844) 633-4677.

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