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Vitalink Receives Critical Care Ground Award of Excellence
VitaLink Critical Care Transport, based at New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina, recently received the Critical Care Ground Award of Excellence by the Association of Air Medical Services (AAMS), sponsored by the IBSC.
The Award of Excellence is a peer-nominated award that recognizes a transport team that has made an outstanding contribution in areas to include enhancing safety, education and leadership, as well as patient advocacy by developing or promoting an improvement of patient care in the medical transport community.
NHRMC VitaLink is part of a comprehensive critical care transport program offering air medical transportation, ground mobile intensive care units, as well as basic, intermediate and advanced life support medical transportation.
NHRMC’s critical care transport services were recognized for their innovative and advanced approach to delivering care. Among the program’s accomplishments:
- VitaLink was the first emergency medical services agency in the country accredited by the College of American Pathologists as a point of care testing lab. The team can initiate advanced medical care even before the patient arrives at the hospital.
- VitaLink was among the first agencies in North Carolina to carry tranexamic acid, a medication used to prevent excessive blood loss from traumatic injuries, on all its vehicles and has participated in multiple clinical trials and research abstracts.
- VitaLink helped rewrite the North Carolina State Office of Emergency Medical Services rules guiding pre-hospital systems, EMS continuing education, and specialty care transport requirements.
“It is a great honor for VitaLink to receive the AAMS 2016 Critical Care Ground Award of Excellence,” said NHRMC Director of Critical Care Transport John Popella. “Since its inception, VitaLink Critical Care Transport has worked tirelessly to improve patient outcomes with a continuous focus on quality care and a culture of safety for patients and providers.”
About VitaLink
VitaLink is the ground component of New Hanover Regional Medical Center’s Emergency Transport Services. VitaLink’s CCT staff are highly trained and specialized clinicians with access to resources that play an integral role in patient outcomes. VitaLink Critical Care Transport Teams consist of experienced and Board Certified Critical Care Paramedics (CCP-C) and Registered Nurses serving the community with inter-facility transport of acutely ill and injured patients. Along with their colleagues of more than 235 medical and administrative staff, NHRMC EMS, the Regional Transfer Center, AirLink and VitaLink operate 45 ground emergency vehicles and two helicopters in southeastern North Carolina safely transporting over 13,000 patients a year. For more information on AirLink/VitaLink, visit www.nhrmc.org/services/emergency/airlink-vitalink.
About the International Board of Specialty Certification
The International Board of Specialty Certification (IBSC®) is the evolution of the Board for Critical Care Transport Paramedic Certification (BCCTPC®). Our Certified Flight Paramedic (FP-C®), Certified Critical Care Paramedic (CCP-C®), Certified Tactical Paramedic (TP-C®), Certified Tactical Responder (TR-C®) and Certified Community Paramedic (CP-C®) examinations are well established and have become a recognized standard for clinical competency by medical providers in the United States, Europe, South Africa and the Middle East.
The International Board of Specialty Certification is a not-for-profit corporation with the mission of developing, implementing and maintaining specialty certification exams to measure the attainment and application of a defined body of knowledge in specific roles. For more information, call +1 770-978-4400 or email help@bcctpc.org.
