For Hub City Times

WOODRUFF — Ministry Health Care’s Spirit Medical Transportation has earned the medical transport industry’s most respected and highest level of accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS). This accreditation is a reflection of Ministry Spirit Medical Transportation’s commitment and focus on quality, patient care, and safety during medical transport.

“We are incredibly honored to achieve this accreditation for our air and ground medical transport service,” said Dr. Rick Brodhead, medical director of Ministry Spirit Medical Transportation. “In a medical emergency, time is incalculably precious, and our air and ground transport teams cover a significant area in central and northern Wisconsin — much of it in rural or remote settings — to pick up patients from health care facilities and accident scenes and get them to the best available care as quickly as possible.”

For over 20 years, Ministry Spirit has provided more than 50,000 safe and timely critical care transports for patients. Ministry Spirit Medical Transportation’s mission is to provide comprehensive, regionally integrated ground and air transportation for adult, pediatric, neonatal, and high-risk obstetrical critical care patients from referral institutions and scenes of injury.

“Providing interfacility transportation for patients requiring advanced life support or critical care management to or from tertiary hospitals is of particular importance and is the primary reason Ministry Spirit Medical Transportation exists,” said Ted Ryan, Ministry Spirit Medical Transportation system director. “Our goal is to transport the patient safely to the best available facility when seconds count, and that could be to anywhere in Wisconsin, the upper peninsula of Michigan, or facilities in Minnesota.”

Ministry Spirit Medical Transportation covers north-central Wisconsin with two air ambulances. Spirit Air 1 is based in Marshfield at Ministry Saint Joseph’s Hospital, and Spirit Air 2 is based at Howard Young Medical Center in Woodruff. The flight crew consists of a certified flight registered nurse, certified flight paramedic, and an air methods pilot.

There are nine critical care ground ambulances and three intercept SUVs in the Spirit fleet. This year Ministry is purchasing five new ambulances, adding two to its fleet and replacing three. In addition to the state-of-the-art ambulances and helicopters, there are 28 nurses, 34 paramedics, 26 full-time EMTs, eight pilots, three maintenance specialists, two regional managers, one communication center manager, one program director, and one system medical director.