Printable VersionA local rescue transport service for Mohave and La Paz counties recently started staffing a new critical care unit seven days per week, said Brad Shelton of River Medical.
 River Medical’s new critical care transport unit is pictured parked on a road in Phoenix. Submitted Photo. |
The specialty ambulances are like critical care rooms on wheels and are used to transport patients from local hospitals to metro-area hospitals that offer specialized care.
“The demand for relocating critical care patients between hospitals has grown in steadily in recent years and air ambulances can be very expensive,” said John Valentine, general manager of River Medical, in the press release.
There are times when weather can be a problem for helicopter or airplane transport, especially during the monsoons, Valentine said.
“To take a helicopter from Havasu to Phoenix is somewhere around $25,000. To make the trip by ground is $4,000 to $6,000,” said Valentine during an earlier interview.
The ground transports up to 300 miles are nearly as fast as a fixed-wing air ambulance. The specialty ambulances are equipped with life-support functions similar to a critical care room in a hospital, the press release said.
River Medical provides a registered nurse with critical care experience, a specially trained paramedic and an emergency medical technician on each of its critical care transports.
The crews can provide care for patients on ventilators or with chest tubes, stroke patients or stable trauma patients as well as those receiving advanced medications, Valentine said in the press release.
“The only critical patients we cannot transport right now are those requiring a balloon pump, newborns and infants,” the general manager said.
River Medical in Havasu and Bullhead City Fire Department are the only critical care ambulance service providers in northwest Arizona. The two have a mutual aid agreement, according to the press release.
River Medical is a subsidiary of American Medical Response and covers 26,000 square miles serving the communities of Parker, Lake Havasu City, Quartzsite and Kingman. There are six stations located at Lake Havasu City, Hillcrest at Bill Williams River Bridge, Parker, Quartzsite, Kingman and Golden Valley.
Originally established in 1983, the local ambulance service became part of America Medical Response in 2008. AMR serves 38 states and the District of Columbia. The nationwide company employs about 18,500 health care workers and transports more than 14 million patients nationwide each year in critical, emergency and non-emergency situations.
AMR is a subsidiary of Emergency Medical Services Corporation and is headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colo.
You may contact the reporter at jhanson@havasunews.com.
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