AMR partners with UBMD Emergency Medicine, UB to implement innovative mobile-emergency physician response program

A network of emergency medical physicians will now be available to respond to emergency medical calls throughout Erie and Niagara counties

American Medical Response (AMR) Western New York on Thursday announced it has partnered with UBMD Emergency Medicine to implement a “highly innovative program” that will provide residents with a network of emergency medical physicians who are available to respond to high-severity 911 calls and mass-casualty incidents.

A press release stated, “By delivering high-quality and compassionate emergency medical care and medical direction on the scene of large incidents, the emergency physician response program will respond to assist on-scene EMS providers with decision-making and patient care of critically injured, ill or complicated patients.”

The program, which is integrated into AMR’s ground medical transport operations, is supported by UBMD Emergency Medicine and the EMS fellowship at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo. The team will be comprised of UBMD EMS medical directors, EMS fellows, emergency medicine residents and regional EMS medical directors who will work on a 24/7 on-call schedule that will complement existing staffing within partner emergency departments.

The press release added, “The dispatch process for the new team will be seamlessly integrated with AMR’s current communications and dispatch process. Each physician will utilize a fully equipped emergency response vehicle to deliver care. Each vehicle comes fully outfitted with advanced cardiac life support, basic life support, communications equipment and a refrigeration unit for medications.”

“We are delighted to partner with AMR. The delivery of exceptional care from our team of EMS physicians truly has no limitations with this operational program. By getting our EMS physicians into the field, we can aid in our region’s pre-hospital care and fulfill our responsibility to train our next physician peers by supporting the EMS fellowship and residency goals,” said Joseph Bart, D.O., UBMD Emergency Medicine, EMS division director and clinical assistant professor at the Jacobs School.

“The new program brings the added expertise of an emergency physician to the place where the patient is and will provide immediate advanced care in life-or-death emergencies,” said Robert McCormack, M.D., president of UBMD Emergency Medicine and professor and chair of the department of emergency medicine at the Jacobs School. “This is a remarkable program to better care for our community and allow for the real-time education of pre-hospital providers, while giving emergency medicine physicians insight into the challenging non-hospital environment in which emergencies often occur. UBMD Emergency Medicine and AMR have solidified a long-standing partnership to provide the best care possible to our citizens in the place where they need it most.”

“AMR is incredibly proud to partner with UBMD to bring this program to the communities of Western New York,” said Tim Frost, regional director for AMR. “The emergency medical physician response program is an innovative solution that brings physician-guided care and direction directly to the patient at the scene, expediting treatment and alleviating strain on our local hospitals.”

AMR is a leading provider of medical transportation, and provides services in 40 states and the District of Columbia. More than 28,000 AMR paramedics, EMTs, RNs and other professionals work together to transport more than 4.8 million patients nationwide each year in critical, emergency and non-emergency situations. AMR also provides fire services through Rural Metro Fire Department (www.ruralmetrofire.com). For more information about AMR, visit www.amr.net.

UBMD Emergency Medicine provides emergency medical care to patients in emergency departments across Western New York and through its emergency medicine services prehospital team. Its physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants provide care in the emergency departments of Erie County Medical Center’s level I trauma center, Buffalo General Medical Center and its stroke and cardiac programs, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, DeGraff Medical Park, Brooks Memorial Hospital, Wyoming County Community Health System and Eastern Niagara Hospital. All physicians are certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine. UBMD Emergency Medicine is part of UBMD Physicians’ Group, the largest medical group in Western New York with more than 550 physicians in 18 medical practices. UBMD Physicians’ Group is the clinical practice plan of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo.