The British Columbia Ambulance Service is a network of ambulance stations throughout British Columbia. "They are best known for providing expert pre-hospital care and being the first on scene when a medical emergency strikes, there is much more to their service than the ambulances you see in your communities.
9-1-1 Response
Founded in 1974, BC Ambulance Service is the largest provider of emergency health care in Canada and one of the largest in North America. BCAS serves over 4.3 million British Columbians and responds to calls for service across six health authorities covering 929,730 square km.
Through the provision of dispatch and paramedic services, expert patient care is delivered from the time a call for help is placed to 9-1-1, to treatment at the scene and transport to hospital.
The BC Ambulance Service operates three Dispatch Operations Centres which manage the receipt of all 9-1-1 calls and coordinate all responses to those calls.
Air Ambulance
BCAS's air ambulances provide critical transportation linkages between hospitals and referral centres across the province for patients requiring a higher level of care.
BCAS's dedicated air resources include: six airplanes and four helicopters. BCAS also utilizes approximately 40 pre-qualified charter carriers throughout British Columbia.
Critical Care Transport Team
The BC Ambulance Service Critical Care Transport Program provides highly specialized, pre-hospital and inter-facility treatment and transport for patients across the province.
Overall, the program is the second-busiest in North America. In 2010-11, BCAS transported more than 7,864 patients: 5,342 adults and 2,525 pediatric, neo-natal and high-risk obstetrical patients.
Cost
In 2011/12, BCAS spent $47.5 million for the aircraft, ambulances, personnel and fuel in support of the Critical Care Transport Program.
Emergency Management
Disasters can strike anywhere, anytime. It takes many forms from earthquakes to floods and can build over days and weeks, or hit suddenly without warning.
BC Ambulance Service staff actively participate in emergency planning, mock disaster exercises and other joint training initiatives to ensure disaster preparedness and response capabilities are identified and deployed quickly and effectively when they are needed most.
First Responders
BC Ambulance Service recognizes that pre-hospital emergency care often requires a professional team approach and appreciates the critical role first responding organizations, such as fire departments, play in ensuring that our patients have access to timely and high quality care during medical emergencies.
Ground Ambulance
BC Ambulance Service ground ambulances are designed and equipped to support our highly skilled paramedics with providing patient care on the scene of an emergency and during transport to hospital.
Statistics
Ground ambulances are deployed from 184 stations located throughout British Columbia and thefleet consists of 540 ambulances and support vehicles.
BCAS ground units cumulatively travel over 20 million km per year.
In 2010/11 BCAS paramedics responded by ground to 471,568 events: 379,713 pre-hospital (911) events
91,855 inter-facility transfers.
Infant Transport Team
BC Ambulance Service Infant Transport Team, founded in 1976, is one of only two paramedic units of its kind in the world.
The Infant Transport Team paramedics provide emergency medical care to BC pediatric, neo-natal and high-risk obstetrics patients while en-route to specialized care units in hospitals throughout British Columbia, the Yukon Territories, other parts of Canada and the United States if necessary.
Patient Transfer Services
Inter-facility patient transfers make up approximately 30 per cent of all BC Ambulance Service transports in British Columbia. BCAS has a number of dedicated ground ambulance transfer vehicles available for patient transfers, but also utilizes emergency fleet ambulances, in between 9-1-1 calls, to transfer patients between health care facilities."
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Information is quoted from the BC Ambulance Service website; some information was edited for content.