If you’re planning the trip of a lifetime – or flying during the summer months – there are plenty of reasons to consider purchasing travel insurance. For a relatively low cost, travel insurance policies can reimburse you if your trip is cancelled due to hurricanes or tropical storms, accident or illness, or long flight delays. But another big reason to consider travel insurance is for travel medical assistance. Travel medical assistance services, such as SentinelMED, can coordinate medical transport and care if you experience an emergency, accident, or illness while traveling.
Travel Medical Assistance Services: An Overview
SentinelMED provides travel medical assistance to people around the globe. Our team has coordinated medical evacuations from war zones, following natural disasters, from cruise ships, and in other locations where medical care is unavailable to meet a patient's needs.
We also regularly work with travel insurance companies to provide travel medical assistance, including long-distance medical transport, evacuation, and repatriation. People who do not have travel insurance also can contact us directly to arrange long-distance medical transport. In many cases we use medical escorts who travel with patients on commercial airlines – a less expensive alternative to long-distance air ambulances. However, purchasing and using travel insurance is much more cost-effective and is recommended.
What Travel Medical Insurance Includes
Depending on your travel insurance policy, your coverage might include none, some, or all of the services listed below. When comparing policies, be sure to carefully review what is covered, what is exempt, and the claim limits, particularly if you need travel medical assistance. Here are some of the medical benefits that travel insurance policies typically provide.
Treatment at a local clinic or hospital. A sprain, dehydration, or severe migraine can all require a trip to a medical facility while you’re away from home. Travel insurance or your own medical insurance can help cover the cost of a doctor’s examination, prescriptions, and medical devices.
Medical case management. As mentioned above, travel insurance companies often utilize medical case managers to assess a patient's medical condition and determine if suitable treatment is available nearby. They also determine when a patient is stable enough to travel and help determine which modes of transport are the safest, quickest, and most comfortable.
Medical evacuation or repatriation. Medical evacuations or repatriations may be required to ensure patients get the care they need. A medical evacuation could be to another city or country near the patient's location, while a repatriation would transport the patient back home.
Support from a medical escort. Some patients may need assistance and support from a medical professional during transport. SentinelMED matches our medical escorts to patients based on their medical needs, native language, and any cultural concerns. They are physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and nurses who are experienced or trained in emergency and travel medicine.
More About SentinelMED
The SentinelMED team has decades of experience in navigating long-distance travel for children and adults who are sick or injured. We work closely with travel insurance companies and hospital case managers to schedule door-to-door transportation and care for patients. Our medical escorts accompany patients from discharge at a hospital or medical facility, through every stage of transport, and to their arrival at a receiving healthcare facility or home.
The SentinelMED team understands the complexity of delivering exceptional care to patients who need assistance during travel. Please contact us to learn more about the services that SentinelMED offers or its staff.
