EMS Is The Service or Business, EMT’s work for EMS

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Systems come in various configurations. The type of configuration of an EMS System is largely based on the needs of the community that it serves.

Fire based EMS are ran and generally staffed with cross trained firefighters. The advantages of a fire based EMS system are many. For one, when an ambulance responds to a call, so is the fire department. This system makes sense in many areas.

A ‘third service is an ambulance service that is owned and operated by the government, but not a part of the fire department. Third services were more popular in decades past, however there are still many still on duty today.

Hospital based EMS uses the ambulance service as an extension of the Emergency Department. Very often, the ambulances are based at the hospital and respond from the hospital. Hospital based EMS is still widely used as it is a logical extension of the Emergency Department.

Private ambulances may bid and be awarded a 911 response area. The advantages of private EMS is that they can be more flexible and cost effective than most hospital or government EMS operations. Some fire departments contract with private EMS to transport patients from the scene to the hospital after they have been evaluated by medics in the fire department.