Private Ambulance Services: A Quick Guide

What’s a Private Ambulance?

An ambulance is a vehicle fitted with the necessary medical equipment used to convey sick people to healthcare facilities. A private ambulance is a type of ambulance service owned and funded by a private company or an individual.

How a Private Ambulance Works

A recent report highlights that people now favor a private ambulance over public ambulances. This is because they operate very differently from public ambulances. According to the standards of Emergency Medical Service, when a person with an emergency dials 911, the nearest public ambulance is alerted.

The public ambulance’s role is to pick up the patient and take them to the nearest hospital or emergency unit for treatment. Public ambulances do not consider if the patient has a preferred hospital or clinic of their choice.

A private ambulance generally factors in the needs and preferences of the patient. It considers the patient’s choice of hospital and any other request they might have. If in the future the patient needs the private ambulance to take them to the hospital regularly for a checkup, they oblige. This justifies why over 40% of the populace prefer private ambulance services.

Functions of a Private Ambulance

1. They transport patients to their hospital of choice: During emergencies, a public ambulance is typically only responsible for taking the patient to a nearby hospital. The responsibility of the private ambulance goes beyond this.

They pick patients from their home and ensure they are taken to their choice of hospital, regardless of if the hospital is in another city, state, or country. This is because private ambulances work to meet patients’ needs and are not under any government directives of how and when to attend to a patient.

2. Private Ambulance for Event Cover: Statistics show that big corporations use a private ambulance onsite to cover their events. These events include sports, wrestling, and outdoor games. A private ambulance’s role here is to assist participants or employees who suffer emergencies during the event. Such casualties are quickly taken to the hospital for further medical attention.

3. They assist recovery and discharged patients: For patients who are still recovering but are ready to be discharged from a hospital, a private ambulance offers their services to them at a certain rate. They can also help move these patients to and from a healthcare facility throughout their recovery period.

4. Private Ambulance offers outpatient medical care: Outpatient medical care can be described as the health treatment received outside a hospital. A private ambulance helps facilitate the movement of patients to such facilities. They can also help transport medical professionals to and from the patient’s home for drug administration and vital sign checkups. Patients likely to use this service are the elderly and non-mobile sick persons.

Conclusion

Compared to public ambulances, a private ambulance offers flexibility and choice to patients. Their primary services include outpatient medical care, transport of discharged patients to and from nursing homes, personal emergency services, and general patient transport.