REMSA in 2020

REMSA
Reno, Nevada
500 Staff | 300 Quarantined in 2020

REMSA is a high-performance, high-value, out-of-hospital healthcare provider and emergency medical services agency headquartered in Reno, Nevada. Since 1986, through an exclusive franchise agreement, REMSA has served the region as a private, nonprofit, community-based organization funded only by user fees with no local tax subsidy. REMSA’s ground ambulance program responds to ~80,000 calls for service and transports ~57,000 patients annually. REMSA is composed of Care Flight – a ground and air critical care transport provider, the Center for Prehospital Education – a licensed, post-secondary education institution and its fully accredited medical dispatch center which manages ~250,000 calls annually and offers a co-located Nurse Health Line. REMSA and Care Flight are Always Ready.

Despite civil unrest, record-breaking heat and weeks of heavy smoke due to wildfires, as well as the global pandemic, employees remained optimistic, committed to safety and provided compassionate, clinically-excellent patient care. We are pleased that our Logistics department anticipated the need for PPE and stockpiled enough for providers and patients as well as donations to first response partners. The health district, overwhelmed by calls, asked us to launch and staff a 24/7 COVID-19 call center; from March through September, 28,514 calls were answered. More than 60 process and practice changes were made including an employer match of an additional 80 hours of paid time off for sick employees, pandemic protocol call-taking and a tiered response system. In other news, we launched on-demand healthcare programs, graduated paramedics, offered CPR training, added ambulances to our fleet, refurbished a mobile operations center and earned CAMTS reaccreditation. Plus, we announced a new team of FTOs, delivered 200 flu shots to homebound citizens and consistently outperformed other organizations of similar size on the EMS Survey.