Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. They may also be known as a first aid squad, FAST squad, emergency squad, ambulance squad, ambulance corps, life squad or by other initialisms such as EMAS or EMARS.
ARCH Air Medical Service is an emergency medical service (EMS) that provides critical care air ambulance service in Missouri, Illinois, and the surrounding regions. Air ambulance programs offer transport by helicopter (rotor-wing) or fixed-wing aircraft. ARCH Air was the twelfth program in the U.S. to offer such services when it began operating in March 1979. Transporting approximately 4,200 patients per year by helicopter, ARCH aircraft are staffed by a pilot, nurse and paramedic. Flights are 80% inter-facility and 20% scene.
The Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service is a Canadian non-profit helicopter air ambulance organization funded by individual donors, service groups, corporate donors and government contributions. STARS provides rapid and specialized emergency care and transportation for critically ill and injured patients. STARS operates from bases in Calgary, Edmonton, Grande Prairie, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and formerly Halifax.
Flight for Life is a prehospital care service with many bases of operation across the United States. Flight for Life is primarily known for its emergency medical helicopter transport, but also operates a fleet of land vehicles and fixed-wing aircraft for the transport of critically ill patients to specialized medical care. Helicopter transport is normally reserved for the most critically injured patients or patients who cannot be reached by traditional means of Emergency medical services. Helicopter transport is also especially useful for the transport of critically wounded patients to specialty medical facilities, such as burn, pediatric, or advanced trauma centers, that may be further away from the location of injury. Many rural communities rely on the speed of the helicopter to reach and evacuate their most serious patients to an available medical center. The helicopter may also be used for search and rescue operations in conjunction with ground units or alone.
New England Life Flight, d/b/a Boston MedFlight, is a non-profit organization that provides emergency scene response and emergency interfacility transfer in Eastern Massachusetts at the Critical Care level using helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, and ground ambulances.
STAT MedEvac "originally STAT Angel One" is a service of the Center for Emergency Medicine of Western Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The primary function of STAT MedEvac is to provide emergency medevac and air medical transport of critically wounded or sick civilians, either from emergency scenes or between hospitals. As of July of 2017, the organization also operates two ground ambulances for patients with severe injury or critical illness. STAT MedEvac is directed by a consortium of hospitals of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) that include UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, UPMC Altoona, UPMC Hamot, UPMC Mercy and UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside. STAT MedEvac's base of operations is in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, at the Allegheny County Airport. With 18 air bases across Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, Ohio, and the District of Columbia, it is one of the largest single operated and dispatched air-medical service organizations in the United States.
In the United States, emergency medical services (EMS) provide out-of-hospital acute medical care and/or transport to definitive care for those in need. They are regulated at the most basic level by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which sets the minimum standards that all states' EMS providers must meet, and regulated more strictly by individual state governments, which often require higher standards from the services they oversee.
A flight paramedic is a paramedic who provides care to sick and injured patients in an aeromedical environment. Typically a flight paramedic works with a registered nurse, physician, respiratory therapist, or another paramedic. Flight paramedics must have an advanced medical knowledge along with years of clinical experience. Flight paramedics in the United States usually hold certifications such as the FP-C or the CCP-C, while in countries like the United Kingdom, they are typically required to hold a postgraduate certificate in critical care as a minimum, with many holding a master's degree in advanced practice or aeromedical critical care.
The Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS) (pronounced cames), is an independent, non-profit agency based in Sandy Springs, South Carolina, which audits and accredits fixed-wing, rotary wing, and surface medical transport services worldwide to a set of industry-established criteria. CAMTS has accredited 182 medical transport programs worldwide as of February, 2017.
A flight nurse is a registered nurse specializing in the field of providing comprehensive pre-hospital, emergency critical care, and hospital care to a vast scope of patients. The care of these patients is generally provided during aeromedical evacuation or rescue operations aboard helicopters, propeller aircraft, or jet aircraft. On board a rescue aircraft, is a flight nurse, accompanied by flight medics and respiratory practitioners, as well as the option of a flight physician for comprehensive emergency and critical transport teams. The inclusion of a flight physician is more common in pediatric and neonatal transport teams. A critical care flight nurse must be able to deal with all age groups with broad critical emergencies. With no physicians on site, the nurses scope of practice is expanded. The critical care experience is transferred over to a flight nurse with impacting factors such as altitude and changes in pressure, gravitational forces, and weather. Some patients may experience exacerbations because of factors related to the cabin environment, including hypoxia, limited mobility, gas expansion, and the risk of injury related to turbulence. Resources for definitive care are limited. Aeromedical evacuation crews coordinate with other organizations to plan for the safe and timely care and evacuation of patients. Crews must be prepared for patients with trauma and mental health illnesses.
MedFlight is a non-profit, CAMTS-accredited critical care transport organization. MedFlight's headquarters is in Columbus, Ohio at the Ohio State University Airport with nine helicopter bases and 3 Mobile ICU ground teams. Helicopter Aviation services are contracted to MedFlight through Metro Aviation, Inc.
Erlanger is an independent, non-profit hospital system and safety net hospital based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Erlanger's main location, Erlanger Baroness Hospital in downtown Chattanooga, is a tertiary referral hospital and Level I Trauma Center. It serves a 50,000 square mile region of East Tennessee, North Georgia, North Alabama, and western North Carolina.
Air Evac EMS, Inc., operating as Air Evac Lifeteam and sometimes called simply Air Evac, is an American helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) or air ambulance provider headquartered in O'Fallon, Missouri. It is the largest subsidiary of Global Medical Response, though still considered an independent provider. It is also the largest membership-supported air ambulance service in the US operating helicopters from 140 bases in 15 states, mostly in the central and southern regions of the country. While primarily a HEMS provider, it also operates 2 fixed-wing aircraft in Missouri and Kentucky.
CareFlight is an air medical service headquartered in Westmead, New South Wales, Australia.
LifeFlight is an air ambulance critical care transport service that operates in the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
ECU Health EastCare is the critical care mobile air and ground transport service of ECU Health at ECU Health Medical Center. It serves 31 counties in Eastern North Carolina. It is sponsored by ECU Health Medical Center and The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. ECU Medical Center is the only level 1 trauma center east of Raleigh. EastCare's five full-time air ambulances constitute the largest air medical program in North Carolina and can serve a radius of 230 nautical miles around Greenville without refueling.
CALSTAR is a regional air medical services company serving California and northern Nevada. It operates as a nonprofit air ambulance provider on the West Coast.
Air medical services are the use of aircraft, including both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to provide various kinds of urgent medical care, especially prehospital, emergency and critical care to patients during aeromedical evacuation and rescue operations.
Northwest MedStar was a non-profit medical transport company headquartered in Spokane, Washington with bases in Spokane and the Tri-Cities, Washington area. The company serviced the states of Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana, transporting critical-care patients using its fleet of helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, and ambulances.
Metro Life Flight is an air ambulance service serving the Cleveland, Ohio area, and is part of the MetroHealth system. The system is fully CAMTS certified, and provides transport between local hospitals, as well as emergency transport to MetroHealth Medical Center, a Level 1 Trauma Center.
