Emergycare
 | |
|
Motto: "When your health is on the line" | |
| Established | 1983 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Erie, Pennsylvania |
| Jurisdiction | Regional |
| Employees | approx. 300 |
| BLS or ALS | BLS, ALS, Mobile care |
| Ambulances | 32 |
| Helicopters | 1 |
| Fly-cars | 8 |
| Medical director | Chris Cammarata |
| Website | www.emergycare.org |
EmergyCare was started in 1983 as a non-profit ambulance service for the city of Erie, Pennsylvania. The service has support from UPMC Hamot medical center and Saint Vincent Health Center, both in Erie. EmergyCare currently has divisions in Erie, Titusville, Warren and Kane. They are also co-owners of Corry Ambulance in Corry along with Corry Memorial Hospital. In 2011, EmergyCare underwent several changes in organization. The organization removed the "Inc." from its name in order to better represent the status of EmergyCare, as it is not a corporation, but a non-profit organization. EmergyCare also unveiled new paint schemes for its vehicles, and has removed the "almost 30 year old" "tripump", and replaced with a more health care-related logo.
Services provided
EmergyCare provides both emergency and non-emergency medical transportation services. They have a medical taxi service which provides ambulatory patients with transportation to and from doctors appointments. They also provide wheelchair transportation.
EmergyCare also provides non-emergency ambulance transportation. This service is used for patients who are non-ambulatory and are unable to tolerate a wheelchair, or who may need other types of monitoring, both basic and advanced. They also provide critical care transportation by ground with what is known at the Mobile Intensive Care Unit or MICU team. These crews are specially trained to provide advanced care to critical patients. These teams can consist of an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and Paramedic, and may also have a Pre-Hospital RN (PHRN).
EmergyCare provides emergency ambulance to all areas in their respective divisions. They also provide paramedic intercepts for residents in eastern Erie County, as well as areas in northern Crawford County.
LifeStar air medical services
EmergyCare provided medical crew staffing for the former LifeStar helicopter which is based out of Corry. The LifeStar program was started in May 1986.
The flight team is composed of a pilot, critical care/emergency Board Certified RN and critical care paramedic. LifeStar is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems.
LifeStar entered an agreement in 2009[1] to become part of the Stat MedEvac system of helicopters based out of Pittsburgh, run by the Center for Emergency Medicine of Western Pennsylvania. At that time, LifeStar officially changed its call sign to LifeStar/Stat MedEvac 17.
LifeStar/Stat MedEvac 17 provided a robust and comprehensive level of on-scene and interfacility critical care air medical transport within a 150 mile radius of Erie. The level of care provided includes cardiac monitoring, defibrillation, external and transvenous pacing, advanced airway management, ventilator, invasive and non-invasive CPAP/BiPAP, blood product administration, invasive line management, arterial lines, central lines, an extensive line of critical care medications, IV pumps, cardiac assist devices, intraaortic balloon pump management and specialty team neonatal critical care.
The LifeStar program has since been dissolved, with Stat MedEvac assuming complete operations for the air medical program.
EmergyCare Operations
The EmergyCare Operations Center is staffed around the clock, 365 days per year. The Operations Center receives information for emergency calls from the Erie County 911 Center for medical emergencies in the city of Erie, PA. The Operations Center also takes calls for and arranges other medically necessary transportation for the Northwest PA area. The Operations Center also tracks calls for outlying divisions in:
- Kane
- Titusville
- Warren
- Corry which is a joint venture between Corry Ambulance Service, Inc and EmergyCare.