The medical transportation company will have 26 ambulances and eight wheelchair transport vehicles, according to Dick Whipple, regional director for AMR’s locations in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. Operations will begin on Nov. 1, Whipple said.
“Our primary and only focus is to support the Premier Health System,” Whipple said.
Candy Skidmore, Premier Health’s vice president of service integration for emergency, trauma and CareFlight, said the network started the process last fall to find a medical transportation company to use.
“Premier is obviously very large and spans quite a few counties,” Skidmore said. “We have a great need to be able to provide patient service by moving patients around in our facilities or if they need to be transferred or discharged somewhere that requires an ambulance or an ambulette.”
Premier has six local emergency centers, five hospitals throughout southwest Ohio, outpatient surgery centers, health centers, long-term care and specialty care facilities, and inpatient rehabilitation facilities.
Skidmore said there will always be a need for transportation as patients are discharged, go back to nursing homes or other types of care facilities. The hospital owns four helicopters and six mobile intensive care units, and used several different transportation companies prior to this partnership.
“We really want to make sure we’re providing appropriate level of care,” Skidmore said.
AMR is in discussions with local medical transportation companies to subcontract when additional help is needed. AMR serves 40 states, has more than 6,275 vehicles, and partners with health systems throughout the U.S.
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