- ARCH Air Medical Service
ARCH Air Medical Service, Inc. is an
emergency medical service (EMS) that provides critical careair ambulance service inMissouri ,Illinois , and the surrounding regions. Air ambulance programs (also known asMedevac ) offer transport byhelicopter (rotor-wing or sling-wing) orfixed-wing aircraft . ARCH Air was the twelfth program in the U.S. to offer such services when it began operating in March 1979. Transporting approximately 4,200 patients per year by rotorwing, ARCH aircraft are staffed by a pilot,nurse andparamedic . Flights are 80% inter-facility (hospital to hospital) and 20% scene.Transport is also provided for specialty teams from
Barnes-Jewish Hospital obstetrics ,Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital , St. John's Regional Medical Centerneonatal ,St. Louis Children’s Hospital and the St. Francis Medical Center andSoutheast Missouri Hospital neonatal intensive care unit s.History
*March 1979: The program began operations as "MARC" (Medical Air Rescue Corps) and was based at
Saint Louis University Hospital flying theSikorsky S-55 .
*1980: MARC replaced the Sikorsky_S-55 with theBell JetRanger Helicopter .
*August 1987: MARC became anot-for-profit consortium sponsored by St. Louis' three adult trauma centers (Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. John's Regional Medical Center andSaint Louis University Hospital ). The name "ARCH" (Area Rescue Consortium of Hospitals) was selected to identify the cooperative effort.
*1989: Paramedic added to the crew mix of pilot/registered nurse.
*1990: ARCH replaced the Bell JetRanger with theMBB/Kawasaki BK 117 aircraft, offering cabin class, twin-engine, space, speed and safety.
1990 also saw the addition of 'fixed-wing' services when it added aBeechcraft King Air for longer distance transports (100-500 miles from base), flights in inclement weather which prohibit rotor wing flights and specialty teams.
*1999: ARCH gained national recognition for its accomplishments in quality of service when it received accreditation from theCommission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS). Of eight air ambulance programs in Missouri, five have CAMTS accreditation and two are operated by ARCH Air Medical Service, Inc.
*2000: ARCH Air Medical Service, Inc. was acquired byAir Methods Corporation, which operates air ambulance programs across America. 2000 also saw the acquisition ofLifeBeat Air Medical , fromSoutheast Missouri Hospital .Current ARCH Air Medical Service, Inc. bases
Service area is 150 miles around each base.
*ARCH - Downtown,St. Louis, Missouri
*ARCH -Chesterfield, Missouri
*ARCH -Cape Girardeau, Missouri
*ARCH -Warrenton, Missouri
*ARCH -Sullivan, Missouri
*ARCH -Sparta, Illinois
*ARCH -Litchfield, Illinois
*ARCH -Effingham, Illinois
*AirLife -Urbana, Illinois
*MedFlight I -Joplin, Missouri
*MedFlight II -Parsons, Kansas External links
* [http://www.archairmedical.com/ ARCH Air Medical Service]
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