Ambulance Drone
Air Ambulance Drone
When you think of drones, medical deployments probably aren’t top of mind. But the list of use cases for drones is growing by the day, and healthcare is one of the most exciting emerging markets.
Today, more and more healthcare providers are turning to ambulance drones to streamline emergency response. And this trend is having a profound impact on the medical industry. By using drones, healthcare providers are extending their reach into local communities and saving more lives.
This post examines everything you need to know about what ambulance drones do and how medical teams are using them to reach patients faster.
Accelerate Response Times
- Ambulance drones can avoid traditional transportation barriers like traffic jams and blocked roads. Due to their nature, they can fly directly to patients instead of navigating congested paths. By using drones to respond to medical incidents, teams can transport items before personnel arrives on the scene. This, in turn, allows patients, family members, and friends to receive immediate treatment instead of having to wait—perhaps too long—for help to arrive.
Reach Difficult Places
- Oftentimes, emergencies happen in remote areas, in places that are difficult to reach. To illustrate, a hiker with a severe bee allergy may get stung in the woods, several miles away from the nearest parking lot, and even farther from the nearest hospital. Similarly, someone could have a heart attack on the 20th floor of a building. Both cases present significant logistical hurdles for emergency responders. But drones can arrive on the scene much faster by taking a direct route to the person through the air while transporting critical supplies. This can buy time before responders can arrive, greatly improving the chances of survival.
Expand Operations
- Ambulances are expensive. In addition to their price tag, they also require human operators, technicians, and medical staff. This makes it very difficult for hospitals to add new units and expand their footprints with any sense of urgency. On the other hand, ambulance drones are much more affordable and require fewer people to operate. Hospitals can use drones to expand their operations and cover more ground. As a result, hospitals are able to serve nearby communities more effectively.
Scale Efficiently
- Medical responders need to keep a close watch on shifting populations, especially in areas with seasonal changes and heavy tourism. For example, consider a coastal town that draws tons of tourists in the summer but clears out in the winter. In this type of scenario, a medical response team could strategically place more drones in the area for faster triage. They could then scale down when populations decrease during the off-season.
