International Emergency Medical Evacuations:Management, Organization and Results within a Major Oilfield Service Company

摘要

Major oilfield companies are regularly confronted with therncostly, delicate and complicated problem of evacuating theirrnseverely ill or wounded employees when the local medicalrninfrastructure is not capable of handling the medicalrnsituation.rnSchlumberger, a large oilfield service company withrnoperations in more than 100 countries, employing overrn60,000 people is faced each month with serious andrnsometimes life-threatening medical emergencies, whichrnrequire an international medical evacuation.rnPrior to 1998 company managers around the world usedrna multitude of emergency providers. There was norncentralized coordination, control or medical review of thernworldwide medical evacuations.rnBeginning in 1999 two major global medical evacuationrnproviders were selected for worldwide coverage for thernentire group in order to:rn1.rationalize evacuation service partnersrn2. provide one global focal pointrn3. provide a systematic approach using web technologyrn4. establish benchmarks and review them on a regularrnbasis.rnThis reorganization resulted in:rn5. more consistent and efficient coveragern6. reduction in response timern7. improved employee and family confidence and moralernin difficult environmentsrn8. reduced costs.rnWe review in this paper the company’s experiencernwithin the last 12 months concerning internationalrnemergency medical evacuations and in particular the:rn1. frequency and medical nature of these emergenciesrn2. profile of the evacueesrn3. logistic problems involvedrn· cost of these evacuations.