Emergency Medical Evacuation (Air-Evac) is the expeditious transportation of a person to a medical facility that offers the life-saving care and specialized consults that are not available at the present site.
Much of 21st century advanced care Air-Evac protocols that have become today’s global, common standards, found their precedents in the U.S. military medical air evacuation procedures which were advanced and honed during the Viet Nam war. With the extensive deployment of the 8-person UH-1 Iroquois (the Huey), emergency Air Evac rapidly evolved from providing speedy transportation of person(s) to the location of life-saving medical services, to providing a platform for the rendering of life-saving medical services enroute during the transport.
Air Evac also covers the transfer of patients from the battlefield to a treatment facility or from one treatment facility to another by medical personnel, such as from a local hospital to a trauma center.
Ready access to emergency Air Evac services for seriously sick or injured individuals is a key component to comprehensive health care protection.