A paramedic is a healthcare professional, providing pre-hospital assessment and medical care to people with acute illnesses or injuries. In Canada, the title paramedic generally refers to those who work on land ambulances or air ambulances providing paramedic services. Paramedics are increasingly being utilized in hospitals, emergency rooms, clinics and community health care services by providing care in collaboration with registered nurses, registered/licensed practical nurses and registered respiratory therapists.
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.
Canadian Helicopters Limited, formerly a part of the Canadian operations of CHC Helicopter Corporation, operates 112 aircraft from 26 bases across Canada and provides a broad range of helicopter services to support the following activities: emergency medical evacuation; infrastructure maintenance; utilities; oil and gas; forestry; mining; construction; and air transportation. Canadian Helicopters Limited also operates an advanced flight school; provides third party repair and maintenance services; and provides helicopter services in the United States in support of specialty operations including forest fire suppression activities and geophysical exploration programs.
The British Columbia Ambulance Service (BCAS) is an ambulance service that provides emergency medical response for the province of British Columbia, Canada. BCAS is one of the largest providers of emergency medical services in North America. The fleet consists of more than 500 ground ambulances operating from 183 stations across the province along with 80 support vehicles. Additionally, BCAS provides inter-facility patient transfer services in circumstances where a patient needs to be moved between health care facilities for treatment. BCAS also operates a medical evacuation program that utilizes both fixed-wing and rotary aircraft.
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.
Emergency Health Services (EHS) is a branch of the Nova Scotia Department of Health tasked with providing emergency medical services. It is also responsible for transportation of patients between hospitals and medical facilities. At present, all ground ambulance and air ambulance service in Nova Scotia is contracted by EHS to Emergency Medical Care (EMC), a subsidiary of Medavie Health Services.
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.
Emergency medical services in Canada are the responsibility of each Canadian province or territory. The services, including both ambulance and paramedic services, may be provided directly by the province, contracted to a private provider, or delegated to local governments, which may in turn create service delivery arrangements with municipal departments, hospitals or private providers. The approach, and the standards, vary considerably between provinces and territories.
Air ambulance services in the United Kingdom provide emergency medical functions, patient transport between specialist centres, or medical repatriation. Services are provided by a mixture of organisations, operating either helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft. All emergency air ambulance helicopters in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland are operated by charities, while Scotland has one charity service in addition to its two NHS-funded helicopters. Fixed-wing air ambulances, used for patient transport, may be government or privately operated. Air ambulance helicopters are complemented by Coastguard SAR helicopters.
The Trauma Hawk Aero-Medical Program provides air ambulance services for Palm Beach County, Florida. On scene paramedics will decide whether or not a Traumahawk is necessary in a situation. On average, a Traumahawk is dispatched between 1 and 5 times a day for traumatic injuries, including those from vehicle accidents to sports injuries, as well as transport for stroke and cardiac patients. Operated by the Health Care District of Palm Beach County, the service uses two identical 1999 Sikorsky S76-C+ helicopters as air ambulances.
Air ambulances in the United States are operated by a variety of hospitals, local government agencies, and for-profit companies. Medical evacuations by air are also performed by the United States Armed Forces and United States National Guard.
Ambulance New Brunswick, also referred to as ANB, is a provincial Crown corporation administered by the Department of Health in the Canadian province of New Brunswick.
ECU Health EastCare is the critical care mobile air and ground transport 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.
Air medical services are the use of aircraft, including both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to provide various kinds of medical care, especially prehospital, emergency and critical care to patients during aeromedical evacuation and rescue operations.
Most air ambulance services in Canada are operated by third parties including NGO's and private contractors working on behalf of a provincial health authority. There are a mix of fixed wing and rotary wing/HEMS fleets used in Canada.The two largest providers are Ornge Air Ambulance in Ontario which operates 12 bases across the province and STARS Air Ambulance which operates 6 bases across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Air ambulance in Greece is air ambulance services provided by government agencies including the Hellenic Air Force or by private-sector companies.
The Ambulance Operators Association of Nova Scotia (AOANS) was the provincial association representing ambulance company owners in Nova Scotia. The association's focus was negotiating with the Government of Nova Scotia over funding and private ownership of ambulance services. The AOANS was also contracted by the Government of Nova Scotia to provide a training program for ambulance personnel and an ambulance inspection program. Between 1994 and 1999, after the publication of the Murphy Report, Nova Scotia transitioned to a single ambulance service provider. This resulted in the AOANS members being bought–out and their ambulance services merged into the new system. The AOANS was formally dissolved in 2002.
All ground ambulance, medical communications, air ambulance service in Nova Scotia, Canada, is contracted by EHS to Emergency Medical Care Inc. (EMC), a subsidiary of Medavie Health Services.
Victoria General Hospital is a hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and part of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre, which began as the City Hospital in 1859.
Life Flight Network is a non profit air and ground critical care transport service based in Aurora, Oregon, in the northern Willamette Valley, with services in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana in the United States.
