Ascension Wisconsin Spirit Medical Transport (Spirit) has earned full re-accreditation from The Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS), the gold standard in medical transport.
CAMTS is comprised of nonprofit organizations dedicated to improving the quality and safety of medical transport services. The accreditation reflects Spirit’s commitment and focus on quality, patient care, and safety during medical transport. For Spirit, the accreditation standards address issues of patient care and safety in rotor wing (helicopter) services, fixed wing (airplane) as well as ground inter-facility services (ambulance), providing critical care transports. Each standard is supported by criteria to measure a program’s level of quality. CAMTS surveyors visited Spirit’s four bases in Rhinelander, Stevens Point, Weston and Woodruff, and met with the leadership team at each location to evaluate compliance and accreditation standards. “Earning CAMTS accreditation validates our commitment to providing patients and our community partners with exceptional patient care,” said Rick Brodhead, MD, Medical Director, Ascension Wisconsin Spirit Medical Transport. “We’re proud to meet and exceed industry-wide standards.” The patient transport process begins with Spirit’s Communications Center, which consists of Ascension Wisconsin Connect and Spirit Dispatch, located at Ascension St. Clare’s Hospital in Weston. The team receives requests 24/7 from medical facilities, county dispatch centers and regional emergency medical services (EMS) to transport patients via ground ambulance, paramedic intercept, medical helicopter or airplane. The Communications Center receives request information and rapidly dispatches the appropriate mode of transportation. During this time, key patient information is collected and relayed to the transport crew. Dispatching a mode of transportation occurs simultaneously to collecting patient and transport information. Spirit covers northcentral Wisconsin and beyond with more than 100 associates.
The flight crew consists of a Spirit certified flight registered nurse, certified flight paramedic and a pilot (the pilot and aviation services are provided by Air Methods Corporation). Ground ambulances and crews are based at Ascension Wisconsin hospitals across central and northern Wisconsin. Spirit ground transport crews consist of registered nurses, critical care paramedics and emergency medical technicians. Both nurses and paramedics assist in the care of critically ill patients at Ascension hospitals where Spirit bases are located when not on transports and participate in ongoing training and skill competency checks. Besides having years of clinical and field experiences, both nurses and paramedics receive more than 200 hours of critical care/emergency transport orientation and must be properly certified. “Our associates take incredible pride in providing compassionate care for critically ill patients in what may be the worst moment of their lives,” said Ted Ryan, Director, Ascension Wisconsin Spirit Medical Transport. “This accreditation showcases the quality and safety commitment we have to serve residents of our region and beyond.”
For over 25 years, Spirit has been the region’s leading link providing more than 50,000 safe and timely critical care transports for patients. Getting patients to the right facility quickly and safely means getting them to the definitive care they need when seconds matter. Spirit’s mission is to provide comprehensive, regionally integrated ground and air transportation for adult, pediatric, neonatal, and high-risk obstetrical critical care patients from referral institutions and scenes of injury. Spirit first earned accreditation from CAMTS in 2015 and this reaccreditation is valid for three years. About Ascension Wisconsin Ascension Wisconsin (ascension.org/wisconsin) operates 24 hospital campuses, more than 100 related healthcare facilities and employs more than 1,300 primary and specialty care clinicians from Racine to Eagle River. Serving Wisconsin since 1848, Ascension is a faith-based healthcare organization committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. As such, Ascension Wisconsin provided more than $292 million in community benefit, including care of persons living in poverty in Fiscal Year 2018. Ascension is one of the leading non-profit and Catholic health system in the U.S. operating 2,600 sites of care – including 151 hospitals and more than 50 senior living facilities – in 21 states and the District of Columbia.