What is Advanced Life Support (ALS)?
In addition to the Basic Life Support skills performed by Emergency Medical Technicians that might include bleeding control, splinting and oxygen therapy, our Paramedics perform significantly more advanced skills such as in-depth patient assessments, cardiac monitoring and evaluation, defibrillation and cardioversion, advanced airway maintenance such as intubation, drug administration and much more.
All Pittsburgh EMS
ambulances (medic units) are ALS and operate with at least two paramedics
to deliver advanced life support care to ill or injured patients
in need of medical help. Paramedics respond to all types of calls, from a person having trouble breathing downtown to a motor vehicle
crash in one of our neighborhoods.
Pittsburgh EMS has 13 ALS ambulances covering 88 city neighborhoods.
Paramedics
– What are they?
A paramedic is not just an ambulance driver and an ambulance is
not just a quick ride to the hospital. Did you ever wonder
why an ambulance is on scene with a patient in the back and not
going to the hospital? It's because the highly trained paramedic will often remain on the scene to initiate therapy to stabilize the patient prior to initiating transport to the hospital. For specific conditions, stabilizing the patient at the scene frequently allows for the reverse of life-threatening conditions that
otherwise would be beyond correction if left to wait for arrival at a hospital.
Based on their enhanced assessment, Paramedics
administer treatment and medications for a variety of conditions including: chest pain,
trouble breathing, heart failure and emphysema. We also treat patients with any type of traumatic injury along with all other types of medical conditions such as an allergic reaction.
Many of our Ambulance Division Paramedics are also certified instructors in a wide variety of Public Safety disciplines and many serve as field preceptors for Paramedic students and emergency physicians.
Equipment – What's on an Advanced Life Support ambulance (Medic Unit)?
An ALS ambulance carries tools and equipment similar to that which is found in a hospital emergency department or critical care unit. ALS ambulances carry critical care equipment including an EKG monitor and defibrillator, an external pacemaker, intravenous and blood draw tools, prehospital medications, advanced airway equipment with specialized monitoring equipment and much more.
Inventory of an ALS Ambulance
To
learn more about the individual Medic Units, please click on their
appropriate page links:
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