The fleet, which rolls into action Oct. 4, will be one of the largest hospital-branded fleets in Ohio with 17 ambulances, five ambulettes, two mobile intensive care units — or MICUs — and two response vehicles. That, officials said, will help increase patient access to network facilities and decrease wait times when patients need to be transported.
Three of the vehicles will be dedicated to serving Fort Hamilton Hospital.
It’s all part of a partnership with Buckeye Ambulance, a Kettering-based medical transportation service, whose vehicles are dedicated solely to transporting patients into and out of the health system’s hospitals, emergency departments and outpatient facilities.
“As a network, we move about 8,000 patients a year throughout our network facilities, going from one campus to another because of the need, whether it be outpatient services, going home or going into a different level of tertiary care,” said John Weimer, Kettering Health Network’s director of emergency and trauma services.
That’s invaluable for all Kettering locations, including Fort Hamilton Hospital, which offers heart, neurological and maternity care, Weimer said.
“When you have someone who … has a heart attack (and) they have great outcomes here, but then they need open heart surgery, what we’ll be able to do is we’ll have an actual vehicle on site that’s integrated within our network, that we can expedite that care to the open heart program up at one of our other facilities in the north area,” he said.
Kettering Mobile Care staff will continually monitor and assess the most beneficial locations for vehicles and adjust accordingly as needed, Weimer said.
Each vehicle is equipped with electronic medical record technology so paramedics and EMTs can electronically transfer patient medical records to hospitals and medical facilities while in service, according to Roy Chew, president of Kettering Health Network.
Mobile intensive care units and ambulances are equipped with cardiac monitors that transmit EKGs and other vital signs and medical information to physicians and other medical providers.
The vehicles are designed to reduce response time via a GPS tracking system that provides real-time location information of each vehicle, allowing dispatchers to send the closest vehicle to pick up a patient.
“This is really state of the art and we’re so glad that we have found a partner that we can march into the future with, together,” Chew said.
The partnership will create approximately 100 jobs in the region, according to Dereck Pristas, president, CEO and founder of Buckeye Ambulance, who said the medical transportation service model is the first of its kind in the area.
“We’re actually able to position our staff here at Fort Hamilton Hospital and they’re able to report to work here so we’re able to get local people and attract local paramedics and EMTs and nurses to come and work and take care of people right here in their own community,” Pristas said.
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