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In early July 2018, Century Ambulance Service expanded to South Florida where it provides ambulance transport, critical care and patient logistics services in Broward County. Already well-known in the Florida healthcare community, Century Ambulance serves patients and healthcare systems from a new station in Ft. Lauderdale. Says Matthew Johnson, Century Ambulance General Manager, “We’ve received a warm welcome since joining the health care community. Meeting the needs of the healthcare systems and their patients has been the catalyst to our early success in Broward County.”
Johnson continues, “But we’re not just an ambulance company, we’re the local community’s healthcare partner, bringing high-quality ambulance service to the area, and logistical solutions through our Covalent Health brand.” Covalent Health provides healthcare logistical services across the country, and is Century’s parent company.
Broward County is Century Ambulance’s twelfth county of operation. Also, it’s the first facility outside of North Florida and the Florida Panhandle, where it already provides close to 90,000 transports per year. As the state’s second most populous county, Broward County is the ideal location. Century’s Ft. Lauderdale operation provides inter-facility transport services ranging from basic life support (BLS) to critical care transports (CCT). It offers logistical tools and services surrounding the transport process that streamlines efficiency for hospitals and health systems.
Century Ambulance works primarily with hospitals to improve patient throughput, by identifying the right resource at the right time. Century Ambulance’s tech-enabled processes and inter-facility transportation network improves patient care, streamlines procedures and reduces costs for its healthcare providers.
An excellent example of the unique services Century provides is the Mobile Telestroke Program. Century Ambulance’s Critical Care vehicles have cameras mounted inside, enabling doctors to perform a live stroke evaluation with two-way video communication between the provider and the patient, prior to arriving at the hospital for treatment. Doctors can view the patient, recommend tests and bring technology into the ambulance.
Says Johnson, “We’ve participated in a study featured in the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare to demonstrate the feasibility of ambulance-based assessment of NIH Stroke Scale with telemedicine. The findings reflect that the average time to perform the remote NIHSS measurement was 7.6 minutes, which could reduce door to needle times and could allow for more efficient management of acute stroke patients. When it comes to a stroke, 7 minutes can save 14 million brain cells. We save lives and the time we save can mean the difference between a patient suffering from significant deficits or being able to walk out of the hospital.”
“If a stroke event occurs during patient transport, Century Ambulance knows the clinical capabilities of local hospitals thoroughly, and takes the patient to a hospital with a comprehensive stroke center.” Johnson adds.
