Founded in April 2000, Arizona Ambulance Transport is co-owned by Paul Pedersen and Edward Van Horne, who combined have over 60 years of experience in the health care, public safety, law enforcement and military arenas.
Since the companyās inception, Arizona Ambulance Transport has treated and transported over 30,000 Cochise County patients.
Arizona Ambulance Transport provides the highest level of ambulance transportation in Southern Arizona, providing Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Life Support (ALS) and Critical Care Transport (CCT) services 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Our employees are the backbone of our company, providing the highest level of quality, compassion and professionalism expected of health care providers.
We are all about patient care at Arizona Ambulance Transport. Our registered nurses, paramedics and EMTs are highly trained; constantly receiving training to insure they have the highest degree of competence. Our caregivers can provide advanced drugs and blood as well as caring for patients on ventilators. We are a key link in the continuum of care from Cochise County hospitals to advanced care facilities in Tucson or elsewhere. Our caregivers have revived patients who have suffered cardiac arrest and delivered babies in the back of our ambulances.
In October 2000, Arizona Ambulance Transport began full-time service with one ambulance in Douglas. The mission of the company was to provide long distance transports from the hospital in Douglas to Tucson. The addition of private ambulance service in Douglas gave the Douglas Fire Department the ability to keep critical 9-1-1 response vehicles in the community around the clock rather than having to complete transports to out of the area hospitals. In addition to the long-distance transports, Arizona Ambulance Transport crews supplemented Douglas Fire Department 9-1-1 responses.
In 2003 Arizona Ambulance Transport stationed an ambulance in Sierra Vista, implementing the āDouglas modelā allowing our transport service to complete long-distance transports from Sierra Vista to Tucson area hospitals.
Arizona Ambulance Transport provided exemplary 9-1-1 ambulance services to Fort Huachuca under contract by the U.S. Army from 2007 to 2018.
In 2010 Arizona Ambulance Transport opened a station in Bisbee to provide interfacility ambulance service to the Copper Queen Community Hospital.
Arizona Ambulance Transport operates in southern Cochise County under a Certificate of Necessity (CON) issued by the Arizona Department of Health Services, operating 10 ambulances and fielding an average of seven BLS, ALS or RN critical care units daily.
This results in the flexibility to deploy ambulances to meet Hospital and patient needs. We receive medical direction from the emergency physicians at Canyon Vista Medical Center in Sierra Vista.
Employees
Arizona Ambulance employs over 50 team members, including emergency medical technicians, paramedics and registered nurses, many of who live in Cochise County. These positions were all newly created jobs within the community adding to the overall health care access within Douglas, Sierra Vista and Bisbee.
Savings to the Community
Since 2006, Arizona Ambulance has transported over 2,500 Critical Care patients from Cochise County to Tucson. Medical helicopters or fixed wing aircraft historically flew these patients at a charge exceeding $20,000 per flight. For the same level of Critical Care services, Arizona Ambulance Transport charges 75% less than the cost of an air ambulance, representing a savings to the Cochise County health care system and individual patients of over $25 million.
Milestone Events
August 2005
Entered into Base Hospital agreement with Sierra Vista Regional Health Center now known as Canyon Vista Medical Center for medical direction.
September 2005 Implemented advanced practice paramedic training program that allows paramedics to provide a higher level of service by adding the ability to monitor critical drugs.
January 2006
Registered Nurse Critical Care Transport services implemented in Sierra Vista.
November 2006
Sierra Vista ambulance crews and administrative operations were moved into a new building to suit the growing needs of the business.
December 2006
Awarded sole source provider contracts for ambulance services by the Veteranās Administration and Southeast Arizona Behavioral Health Services (SEABHS).
New ambulance billing contract with AmbiServ, a Sierra Vista based ambulance-billing Company.
March 2008
Acquired first GMC 2500 DuraMax chassis in Arizona. Our crews āstarredā in still and video shoots to assist in marketing āOn Starā life saving programs.
November 2010
Acquired first Mercedes Benz Sprinter ambulance in Southern Arizona.
March 2013 and June 2017
Participated in the American Ambulance Association Stars of Life program in Washington D.C. and met with the Arizona Congressional delegation.
June 2016
First to own and operate the Ford Transit ambulance in Arizona.
November 2016
Contributed $15,000 to the Copper Queen Community Hospital for the purchase of an advanced airway management device for the new Douglas emergency center.
April 2017
Began service to the new Copper Queen Douglas freestanding emergency room from a station adjacent to the facility.
October 2017
Deployed two ambulances as part of a FEMA Strike Team to support California Wine Country Fire operations. We also responded to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Gustav in 2008.
Industry Affiliations
Ā· Cochise County Emergency Medical Services Council (CCEMS) and Fire Chiefs Association
Ā· Southeast Arizona Emergency Medical Services Council
Ā· American Ambulance Association (Co-owner Paul Pedersen serves on the Association board of directors)
Community Involvement
Bisbee Chamber of Commerce
Sierra Vista Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
