Timely medical transportation at an appropriate level of care is essential to achieve positive health outcomes in critical medical situations. Critical care transport programs, such as STAT MedEvac (STAT), often provide the highest level of care and the fastest mode of transport when patients need it most. Issues arise, however, when weather and other operational challenges make it unsafe or impractical to operate an air ambulance. STAT addresses this challenge by collaborating with ground ambulance agencies local to their air medical bases. The ground ambulance agency provides an ambulance and driver while STAT provides the medical crew and most of the required medical equipment to facilitate ground critical care transports. Although STAT currently vets ground ambulance agencies prior to utilizing them, this vetting process is limited and there have been potentially preventable operational and safety events. Additionally, STAT’s Communications Specialists frequently experience challenges in rapidly identifying an appropriate and available ground ambulance for these transports. This essay discusses the current state of STAT MedEvac’s Ground Partner Program, the development of a comprehensive vetting program, and the utilization of information gathered during the vetting process to streamline ground ambulance dispatching. This project is of public health importance because air and ground critical care services improve patient outcomes and facilitate rapid access to regionalized specialty care that is often unavailable locally
