Lexipol is a comprehensive risk management solution for public safety and local government. We use content and technology to create safer communities and empower the individuals and organizations that serve them. 2020 has presented the communities we serve with unprecedented challenges–pandemic, fires, hurricanes, civil unrest and more–and we, as an organization, went into overdrive to provide solutions. These initiatives included our free Corona Virus (COVID-19) Learning & Policy Center, which provides free COVID-19 policies, course and training tools for individuals and organizations. We also hosted a hugely popular and powerful webinar, First Responders, Stress Management and Coronavirus, presented by Mike Taigman. We also featured timely and important coverage across our media properties, including EMS1’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) Special Coverage section.
Rescue Inc
Brattleboro, New Hampshire
70 Staff | 4 Quarantined in 2020
Rescue Inc is a private non-profit service in Southern Vermont. Founded in 1966 as a volunteer organization responding to local emergency calls, Rescue today is mission-driven; providing emergency medical treatment and transportation, specialized rescue services, community education, and transportation of critical patients between area hospitals. Out of two stations, and with a fleet of 9 ambulances and 3 response vehicles, we provide timely and efficient service in our five hundred square mile coverage area in Southern Vermont and Southwestern New Hampshire. 2020 has brought the challenges of COVID-19 and supply line shortages, but also the development of new programs including EMS ultrasound and EMT hybrid courses to our community.
During the COVID-19 crisis, Rescue Inc stepped in with resources to engage in critical work for public health. In collaboration with the health department, Rescue Inc provided expanded transport capabilities; transporting COVID positive persons to isolation facilities for recovery. Our crew of medical providers staffed pop-up testing sites and have screened thousands over the last several months. As a way to limit exposure, our providers were called upon to facilitate mobile testing and would travel to test a single person or whole families in their own homes. Our MCI trailer was redesigned as a COVID pop-up testing facility, stocked with supplies, and available for rapid deployment of testing capacity. Rescue Inc is fortunate for the support and teamwork of the community. Contributions fitting of a unique time showed up at our door; paper towels for handwashing, handmade masks, specially designed airway boxes, and much more. Rescue Inc was able to provide respirator fit testing for several local healthcare facilities so they could safely take care of their patients. A pandemic at a global level; in our little corner of Vermont, we take care of each other.
American Ambulance Visalia
Visalia, California
150 Staff | 5 Quarantined in 2020
American Ambulance Visalia (AAV) proudly serves the greater Visalia area and portions of rural Tulare County. American Ambulance responds to over 23,000 emergency and non-emergency related incidents per year and offers Advanced Life Support (Paramedic) and Basic Life Support (EMT) level of care. AAV was originally established in 1979 as a new Visalia operation for Fresno-based American Ambulance. In 1988, Mr. Cooper and family acquired the Visalia operation and established the company as American Ambulance Visalia. Today, operating out of multiple stations throughout Visalia, Goshen, and portions of rural Tulare County, AAV continues to work hard for all those served by continually reviewing the needs of the communities, maintaining an emphasis on training, providing access to further education for employees, and supporting the core values of the company. In addition to our charitable giving programs to support the community, AAV works with local schools and other various organizations to provide ambulance coverage to the many community events. AAV also has classes available to the general public such as CPR, First Aid, ACLS, PALS, and AED.
2020 brought forth many challenges for EMS, due to the pandemic and natural disasters. AAV has responded to the COVID pandemic by following CDC recommendations for personal protective equipment, acquisition, usage, employee screening and aggressive follow up and disinfection practices. In adhering to policies and procedures put into place, staff infection rates have been remarkably low, around 3% overall. The challenges of COVID have been matched by a record wildfire season in California. With fires burning statewide, fire agencies such as CalFire have requested assistance from EMS to care for injured civilians and injured fire personnel. AAV has deployed an EMS strike team to assist with fires along the central coast, as well as fires in the central Sierra Nevada mountains. AAV continues to support Fire agencies and a major utility company in their efforts to suppress these fires and restore power to affected communities.
Cindy Elbert Insurance Services, Inc.
Peoria, Arizona
Cindy Elbert Insurance Services has been providing insurance services to ambulance companies nationwide since 1982. We understand the impact the pandemic is having on our essential mobile healthcare industry. These are trying times. Thank you for your commitment and dedication. Thank you for your compassion, collaboration and courage. EMS are everyday heroes. During these uncertain times, our priority has been to listen passionately and to provide exceptional insurance support to respond to our ambulance service customer’s insurance needs, concerns and questions. We are all in this together. We are here for you. Thanks for being here for us.
Brewster Ambulance Service
Weymouth, Massachusetts
1,800 Staff | 39 Quarantined in 2020
Brewsters Ambulance Service is committed to industry-changing innovation that has served to improve the landscape of EMS throughout Massachusetts and the Country.
With the current Brewster family leadership of Mark Brewster and his brother George Jr., the Brewster family reputation for quality customer service and excellence in clinical and emergency medical transport service continues to raise the bar for EMS delivery.
Brewster Ambulance Service employs approximately 1,800 employees in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Florida. Our current fleet is comprised of over 350 vehicles and in New England alone we completed over 275,000 transports annually.
Since January of 2020 Brewster Ambulance Service has increased their posture and approach to clinician and patient protection in the setting of the current pandemic with new policies and procedures as well as personal protection equipment for crew and patient safety.
In addition Brewster Ambulance Service has been a leader in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with Covid-19 testing. Testing sites have included EOPSS first responder drive through sites at Gillette stadium in Foxboro and the Big E in Springfield. In addition Brewster was selected by The Department of Corrections for testing of all Corrections officers and inmates to prevent the spread of Covid-19 at all 16 detention facilities. This testing knowledge allowed for the expansion of testing to large Academic institutions for routine Covid-19 testing of College staff and students providing over 100,000 tests.
Royal Ambulance
San Leandro, California
500 Staff | 9 Quarantined in 2020
Royal Ambulance is the leader in healthcare transportation & patient navigation services in Alameda County, Contra Costa County, Santa Clara County, Santa Cruz County, and San Mateo County. Since 2006, we’ve grown from 2 ambulances and 10 employees to over 80 ambulances and 500+ team members. We are recognized as one of Inc Magazine’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies and as one of Modern Healthcare’s “Best Places to Work”.
As we continue to grow, we remain focused on maintaining our culture of professional and personal development, a supportive family environment, and a first-class employee experience. At Royal we firmly believe it’s not just about the destination, it’s about the journey! It’s about who you become along the way, the people you meet, the connections you make and the experiences that you have that shape the kind of healthcare professional you become.
As a pillar of the San Francisco Bay Area community, Royal was at the forefront of “Project Helping Hands” – an initiative to support Skilled Nursing Facilities whose staff and residents were affected by COVID. The task at hand was to have EMTs work in the role of CNA and support staff, teaming up with facility employees and assist with bathing, feeding, caring, and sharing love and compassion. Project Helping Hands brought together nurses, CNAs, doctors, leaders, and EMS – all working together to care for the most vulnerable.
We operate on four core values: Driven, Adaptable, Engaging, and Adaptable. You have to be Driven to get up every morning knowing what you’re dealing with. You must be adaptable to an ever-changing environment where the virus is everywhere. You have to be Engaged with the situation or accidents might happen. And lastly, Empathetic to those who are struggling through this crisis.
We are truly proud of our team of healthcare HEROES who rise up and show up every day to face this pandemic head-on with courage and conviction to ensure that our patients and community receive the best care and experience.
Family owned since 1971. We serve Licking and Franklin Counties in Ohio. Headquarters located in Newark, Ohio. We provide ALS and Wheelchair services. Mission Statement: “Our Family Serving Yours”
The daily guidance from the American Ambulance Association on the ever-changing direction of the pandemic, made navigating a little easier and less tiring by keeping us focused and dedicated to provide that quality service to our community.
Quick Med Claims (QMC) is proud to be a trusted revenue cycle management partner to the ambulance industry. We provide billing and consulting services to air and ground ambulance providers with the goal of compliantly maximizing reimbursement for every trip.
In the second week of March 2020, QMC transitioned more than 300 team members from seven offices across the country to ‘work-at-home’ status and without service interruptions!
With our team in place, we immediately focused on meeting Pandemic-related operations and communication challenges.
QMC’s Leadership monitored the situation and reported out critical national and state-specific Public Health Emergency alerts to our team members. Our Operations Team halted balance billing for our clients who had accepted CARES Act stimulus funds and identified trips where verified uninsured COVID-positive patients could be submitted to the Uninsured Patient Payment Program for payment.
Our Communications Plan provided real-time guidance to providers through various platforms, including: e-mail bulletins, Live Q&A Webinars, a COVID-19 Resource Center accessible from our website, and a dedicated email address at COVIDHELP@quickmedclaims.com for assistance with any Pandemic-related issues.
“QMC Cares” became our theme as we banded together as one in a concerted effort to assist our clients and their team members with unwavering support for those who sacrifice daily on the front lines of this global emergency.
SouthStar EMS traces its history to 1976. We serve the greater Metro Augusta Georgia area as the sole source ambulance & stretcher van provider for the VA Medical Center for 10+ years; also we are a long term partner with Aiken County EMS 911 in Aiken South Carolina for 11 years+. In our Georgia operations, we provide emergency & non-emergency medical transport for every Hospital & SNF + the State of Georgia Hospitals, State Prison Hospital, Federal Prison for ground & air transports and 70 other health agencies. We back up the county EMS 911 service when requested. SouthStar is the first provider in the USA to have 100% of our alternative services, Certified Transportation Specialist by NEMTAC. Our CEO is a charter member of NAEMT and a State of Georgia NAEMT Advocate, who started in EMS in 1969. Our training facility is an NREMT recognized training center. Our training officer is an NREMT-P, and we teach a wide variety of classes and certification programs for our company and the public and partner with Hospitals and other health care agencies. We are active in our communities supporting a plethora of events and stand-by for high school football, horse events, etc.
SouthStar early on took precautions with Covid-19, having gone thru a number of previous airborne infection situations.
We began an effort to use face masks as a routine part of our patient care approach. We began making our own kits of gowns, masks, gloves, and experimented with a variety of gown styles. We got involved with local health department efforts and partnered with all our health care agencies as they developed custom protocols at their facilities. We began daily temperature checks on all our patient care staff and charted individually. We were requested to help with COVID Testing in Georgia & South Carolina, partnering with the State of Georgia & State of South Carolina. We offered our mobile emergency room to help with rural testing and field evaluations. We are still active with protective measures in all our operations. We have had 9 positive tested employees, who were immediately quarantined up to 10+ days, or till asymptomatic. We strive diligently to protect our staff and patients with aggressive disinfection of each unit after a transport. Each of our units has disinfectants and mist sprayers for use.
FERNO is the global leader in pre-hospital emergency care solutions serving emergency services, fire rescue, mortuary, industrial safety, police, and the United States military. We serve more than 100 countries and have partnered with services, caregivers, safety and regulatory agencies, and customers globally to create a new vision for the delivery of emergency care. FERNO is committed to modernizing EMS systems by integrating products that maximize safety for caregivers and patients alike.
To support our customers across the globe during the pandemic, FERNO leveraged long-standing partnerships to help promote safety for front-line healthcare workers. FERNO products such as the Cot Patient Shield, Oxygen & Airway products, ventilator parts, hand sanitizer, face shields and other PPE became more important than ever to front-line EMS. Partnering with VRpatients for online virtual EMS training has also addressed EMS staffing and training needs during COVID.
Other products in the FERNO portfolio such as evacuation stair chairs, stretchers, litters, litter arms and the iNTRAXX system have been heavily used to support hurricane and flooding evacuation efforts.
For more information, visit www.FernoEMS.com or call 877-733-0911 to learn more and help us transform emergency care.
East Baton Rouge Parish EMS
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
200 Staff | 35 Quarantined in 2020
The East Baton Rouge Parish Department of Emergency Medical Services was founded as the first municipal third service EMS system in the State of Louisiana on August 6th,1982. At its inception, there was no advanced life support pre-hospital care in the capital area. EMS was initially supported by Federal Revenue Sharing Funds. In 1985 a tax election was held, and the citizens voted for a $3 million property tax dedicated to the funding of their EMS System. This year the Department has an operating budget of $24,000,000 which is also supplemented by third-party insurance billing. EBR EMS is the primary provider of pre-hospital emergency medical care in EBR Parish and runs about 65,000 calls annually. EBR Parish is 456 square miles with a population of over 440,000 residents. EBR EMS operates 12 stations throughout the parish with 14 ALS ambulances and a minimum of 2 supervisor sprint vehicles. Baton Rouge is home to LSU and Southern University, as well as a community college. The Department’s special events fleet is comprised of a medical rehab trailer, bicycle teams, ASAP brand 4×4 vehicles, and a mass casualty triage deployment truck.
In January 2020, East Baton Rouge EMS was requested to provide mutual aid to New Orleans EMS for the College Football National Championship game. The Department provided NOEMS an ASAP cart, a bicycle team along with medics to work the event. EBR EMS medics were once again sent to New Orleans in February for Mardi Gras coverage and provided 2 ASAP carts, 2 bicycle teams and medics for an entire week’s coverage. There were multiple Mardi Gras parades in Baton Rouge that EBR EMS also medics covered.
March 2020 was when COVID began to affect our community. We quickly mobilized specialized COVID units to respond solely to these types of calls based on dispatcher screening. Increased protective measures were placed on these units. As the number of COVID calls increased, it was decided to outfit every unit and medic with these extra protective measures.
The 2020 hurricane season was very active for our area. We had several back to back storms that required us to activate our disaster plans. Thankfully the capital area was spared direct hits, but our neighboring communities weren’t so lucky. EBR EMS provided USAR medics and an ambulance to the badly damaged Lake Charles area.
United New York Ambulance Network
Albany, New York
The United New York Ambulance Network (UNYAN) is comprised of small and large commercial ambulance providers. Founded in 1996, UNYAN advocates for quality patient care and helps lead the industry toward providing reliable, cost-effective approaches to high quality medical and emergency transportation services. UNYAN members provide safe, reliable, and timely ambulance services in 22 of New York’s top 25 cities and serve millions of New Yorkers 24/7/365.
As one of the hardest and earliest hit states by the COVID-19 pandemic, UNYAN members have stepped up to support New Yorkers and help alleviate the strain on the state’s healthcare system. Our members operate in urban, suburban, and rural communities and they have gone above and beyond to help their neighbors, protect communities, and reduce the burden on hospitals through innovative treat and release practices. Our members are essential for New York’s recovery. We couldn’t be prouder of their resilience and dedication to our patients during these challenging times. To learn more about what we our members have done during the pandemic, visit us on Facebook and on Twitter @NYAmbulances.
Delta Ambulance
Waterville, Maine
140 Staff | 0 Quarantined in 2020
Delta Ambulance, founded in 1972, is the leading provider of high quality, compassionate emergency services, and medical transportation in central Maine. At Delta Ambulance, nothing is more important than providing exceptional and compassionate patient care. For more than 45 years, we have been serving our communities, treating each individual as if they were our own family.
We place an emphasis on the most up-to-date technology and have an ongoing commitment to maintain quality and surpass certification requirements for our employees. Delta paramedics are on hand for every emergency, including critical care and advanced life support transfers.
In the 16 communities we serve, we support local community events and causes, offering our stand-by emergency services, Community Paramedicine, or providing education such as hands-only CPR, blood pressure screenings, and ambulance tours.
Delta Ambulance is one of the busiest services in Maine – receiving approximately 20,000 calls annually. When COVID hit and the state went into ‘lockdown’, people stayed home, hospitals stopped performing elective procedures and call volume dropped dramatically. We began daily operational ICS meetings, aggressive PPE procurement along with regular decontamination and sterilization and progressive patient-care and response protocols. Fortunately, none of our staff took ill and we enjoyed the support of the community and client institutions. Maine’s COVID caseload remained comparatively low. As Maine reopens, hospitals are resuming full-service, people are out-and-about and call volume is increasing. We hope and pray that caseloads of any future waves are equally low.
Medical Transportation Association of New Jersey
Trenton, New Jersey www.mtanj.com
The Medical Transportation Association of NJ mission as follows;
A. Promoting excellence and quality in the New Jersey medical transportation industry.
B. Providing opportunities for dialogue, education, advancement, and improvement of all aspects of the medical transportation and emergency medical services.
C. Articulating and advocating the needs and interests of the medical transportation and emergency medical services field before legislative, administrative, and judicial branches of local, state, and national governments;
D. Cooperating on behalf of the medical transportation and emergency medical services field with suppliers, distributors, dealers, insurers, and customers/clients/patients directly and through their associations in matters involving the business and governmental affairs of the industry; and
E. Promulgating policies and conducting activities for the betterment of all those individuals or organizations involved in some aspect of the medical transportation and emergency medical services field.
COVID-19 Pandemic
NJ was the second epicenter of the pandemic. It came fast and furious for us. Northern NJ was quickly overwhelmed. We would like to thank the 175 ambulances sent to us from around the country through the FEMA contract. Those units covered roughly 12,000 emergencies for us! We are forever grateful. It was tough for all of us. Heroes sure do cover EMS nationally, as was proven during the pandemic. God bless you all.
Metro West Ambulance Services
Hillsboro, Oregon
930 Staff | 32 Quarantined in 2020
Metro West Ambulance Services, Inc. has a history rich in meeting the needs & caring for those we serve from very small rural communities to large urban areas. We’ve had great successes, marked many firsts in our industry, have been a part of the evolution of prehospital care over the decades. Founded in 1953, Metro West Ambulance Services, Inc. has grown to become a Family of Companies that includes Metro West Ambulance, Pacific West Ambulance, Medix Ambulance, Bay Cities Ambulance, Mid-Valley Ambulance, Umpqua Valley Ambulance & Woodburn Ambulance who are headquartered in Oregon & Del Norte Ambulance in Northern California. Our companies provide a variety of medical services and transportation levels. All are ALS 911 EMS & ALS/BLS Interfacility Mobile Healthcare providers. Our Family provides medical wheelchair transportation; Mobile Integrated Health (one of the largest programs in the country); ICU RN level Mobile Intensive Care Unit critical care transport team serving Oregon & Washington; Secure Transportation for behavioral health patients. We serve various population bases from 28,000 to over 600,000. We believe every community deserves the best in regards to EMS.
2020 has been the year where our Family of Companies have stood together & have been there for each other facing challenges that despite our decades of experience haven’t faced before. This year has taught us an even greater level of resiliency, tenacity, creativity & determination. We have & we are caring for & transporting critical and stable COVID-19 patients via every level of medical transportation we offer. We partnered to have our MIH crews care for patients in virtual hospitals at home. They’re now starting training to administer Remdesivir. Our state was hit by multiple devastating wildland fires. Our companies did on-site medical support; provided Emergency Medical Dispatching for large & ongoing fires; assisted in evacuating patients from 2 hospitals & helping other hospitals transfer patients; provided around the clock medical standbys caring for our partner fire agencies; assisted with level 3 evacuations to help evacuate non-mobile citizens and those exposed to the hazardous air quality. We assembled multiple COVID-19 testing teams from our companies needed for fire affected areas, homeless shelters, long term care facilities & our communities. All this together!
