Closing the gap between air and ground

A new certified transfer platform lets compatible aircraft systems lock directly onto a standard ambulance cot, removing one of the highest-risk steps in critical patient transport.

The patients moved by air ambulance are among the sickest the health care system handles. Trauma cases pulled from remote locations. Stroke and cardiac patients racing a treatment window. Newborns in respiratory distress, traveling in incubators with a full suite of life support attached.

These patients arrive on one platform and need to continue their journey on another, often into the hands of a ground service the flight crew has never worked with before. Air ambulance operations routinely cross jurisdictions, which means the stretcher waiting on the tarmac isn't always one the crew recognizes. Confirming that an aircraft's transport platform will actually lock onto whatever cot shows up is a coordination problem that has to be solved before the patient ever leaves the ground, or a risk that gets carried into the transfer itself.

Rowland Emergency built the Universal Cot Adaptor Deck (R-606094) to make that question irrelevant.

Compatibility instead of coordination

The deck is engineered to replicate aircraft locking configurations, allowing compatible patient platforms, incubators, and transport systems to connect directly to a standard EMS ambulance cot. Once the deck locks onto a system like the LifePort AeroSled or Ferno MTLS, the transfer is done. There's no advance call to confirm whether the ground unit's stretcher will accept the aircraft's platform, and no improvised workaround if it doesn't.

"The deck means a flight crew doesn't have to ask what stretcher is waiting for them on the ground," said Blake Rowland of Rowland Emergency. "If it's a standard EMS cot, it's already compatible. That's one fewer variable in a call where there isn't time for variables."

The deck itself is built from two interlocking sections that come together into a single, stable platform. Once joined, it rests on the cot's frame rail at four contact points, distributing weight evenly across the structure. Adjustable attachment locations accommodate the cot-mounted accessories crews already depend on, so nothing has to be removed or rerouted to make room. Certified straps lock the deck to the stretcher frame for the duration of transport, keeping the platform secure through loading, transit, and unloading alike.

Built for crews who can't afford downtime

EMS equipment lives a harder life than most. It's loaded and unloaded dozens of times a week, wiped down with disinfectant after every call, and exposed to weather that doesn't care about a maintenance schedule. Crews need it to behave exactly the same way on a routine transfer as it does on the worst call of the year.

The Universal Cot Adaptor Deck is constructed from high-strength aluminum and stainless steel, a pairing that keeps the unit light enough for a two-person crew to handle while standing up to the corrosion and wear that come with daily field use. Assembled, the deck weighs 46 pounds. Broken down, each half weighs 28 pounds and packs into its own protective carrying bag at 43 by 16 by 7 inches, small enough to stow in a compartment or air shelf without crowding out other equipment.

Compatible with whoever shows up

Rowland Emergency designed the deck to work across stretcher brands rather than locking crews into a single manufacturer's ecosystem. It has been tested specifically on Ferno and Stryker systems, including the Stryker Power-PRO XT and Power-PRO 2, with configurable foot positions built for each stretcher's frame geometry. It's also compatible with the Stryker Power-LOAD system for services running powered cot loading.

That matters inside a single fleet running mixed stretcher brands across multiple bases. It matters even more at the boundary between agencies. An air program doesn't always control which ground service responds to a given call, and a ground service doesn't always know in advance which aircraft platform it's receiving. Universal compatibility means neither side has to find out beforehand. Whatever standard cot is on scene, the deck is already built to accept it.

When the patient is a newborn

Neonatal transport raises the stakes further. Infants moved by air often arrive with severe conditions, respiratory distress, congenital complications, conditions that leave no margin for an improvised handoff. They travel in incubators, frequently attached to mechanical ventilation and continuous monitoring, in an environment that's already tight on space and time.

The same compatibility that simplifies a trauma transfer applies here. Because the deck is built to accept compatible patient platforms rather than a single proprietary system, a receiving ground crew doesn't need to special-order equipment or confirm in advance that their cot can handle a neonatal incubator transfer. The deck fits, because it's universal.

What it changes operationally

The clinical argument for universal compatibility is straightforward. The operational argument is just as strong, and it's the one that tends to win over procurement teams once the deck has been in service for a few months.

A meaningful share of air-to-ground coordination today happens before the call ever launches: dispatch centers and program coordinators confirming what stretcher a responding ground unit runs, whether it's compatible with the aircraft's transport platform, and what the backup plan is if it isn't. Universal compatibility collapses that step. The question of whether a given configuration will work doesn't need to be asked, let alone answered, before a transfer can happen.

That also simplifies training and onboarding. New hires and part-time or relief staff, common across air medical programs that draw clinicians from elsewhere in the health care system, don't need to learn a list of compatible and incompatible stretcher models.

Built to standard

The Universal Cot Adaptor Deck was developed and tested to meet Ministry of Health Land Ambulance safety standards and carries Rowland Emergency's 10G land ambulance certification. For medical directors and procurement teams evaluating new equipment, that certification means the deck has already been measured against the same regulatory bar the rest of their fleet is held to.

Designed around the handoff

What separates the Universal Cot Adaptor Deck from a generic critical care transfer system is that it was built to solve a coordination problem as much as a mechanical one. It was designed around the moment two different services, often running two different stretcher systems, have to work together without a delay.

For air ambulance operators, critical care transport teams, and ground services that respond to calls outside their own fleet, that's the entire value proposition. It is a transfer that happens faster, because there's no compatibility check standing between the aircraft and the cot. But the speed is a byproduct. The real shift is a transfer that doesn't depend on which ground service shows up, which stretcher they're running, or whether anyone confirmed compatibility ahead of time.