EMS Services

When selecting Grady EMS to provide emergency medical services, our communities are not just hiring an Ambulance Company, but an entire health system for pre-hospital care. Grady EMS provides specialized industry specific expertise that includes:

• Emergency 911 Services
• Specialty Care Transports (non-emergency transportation solution)
• Mobile Integrated Health Care
• EMS Fleet Services
• EMS Fleet Collision and Remount Services
• Special Event EMS Coverage
• Continuing Education
• National accredited EMS Education Academy
• Health System Partnerships for transportation management solutions
• Nationally accredited 911 Dispatch Center

The Field Operations division includes all field staff deployed on the ALS 911 emergency ambulances. The ambulances are deployed using peak-load staffing and system status until deployment. The shifts are 13-hour, 12-hour, and 8-hour fixed and rotating day schedules. At peak times in Atlanta, Grady deploys 35 ALS ambulances, one ALS Special Operations unit, three Quick Response Vehicles (QRV) ALS units, and two ALS Field Managers. All units are equipped with GPS tracking to ensure the closest unit responds to calls and mobile data terminals to receive call dispatch information. The patient charting is completed on a Toughbook integrated into the Computer Aided Dispatch system and ESO, an electronic patient care reporting system.

Grady EMS paramedics and EMTs use an extensive set of Clinical Care Guidelines (Protocols and Standing Orders) developed in coordination with Emory University School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine Section of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine and approved by the Grady EMS Medical Director. The majority of clinical care guidelines permit standing order medication and skill treatments. Grady EMS carries a full complement of ALS gear, Zoll X-Series cardiac monitors (12-lead, BP, pulse ox, CO2, temp, and QCPR), Lucas CPR Devices, EZ-IO Drill, I-Gel Airways as a secondary device, military tourniquets, and use Stryker power lift/power load stretchers. In addition, the QRV medics are licensed and credentialed to provide whole blood, TXA, and calcium to trauma patients suffering from hemorrhagic shock, to utilize video laryngoscope, and QuickTrach Emergency Cricothyrotomy kits.

Grady EMS, through its non-emergency division, provides all discharge and inter-facility transportation planning for the hospital. SCT transport options include ambulatory vans, wheelchair vans and BLS units for stretcher patients.

The Field Division is one of the ways we’re giving communities better access to the healthcare they need. The goal of this division is to transport patients to hospitals within the Atlanta area and specific Grady clinics through a new program called the Alternate Destination Care Program (ADCP). The ADCP allows field providers to transport stable patients that meet specific criteria to one of Grady’s ambulatory care clinics. The responding ambulance is notified before arrival if the patient meets the EMD code to qualify for the program. Upon arrival, the field provider will complete an assessment and make sure the EMD code is met. Patients who meet the requirements will be offered transport to one of four pre-selected ambulatory clinics. Should the field assessment warrant, the patient will be transported to an emergency department for evaluation.

To learn more about scheduling a non-emergency transport, click here.

Grady EMS E-911 Communications Center is a secondary public service answering point (PSAP), receiving all emergency calls through the city of Atlanta, College Park, and East Point. Once received, our EMD-trained dispatchers use the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch protocol system to evaluate the patient’s condition and assist in appropriately allocating resources. We utilize the latest technology to facilitate a seamless experience when someone activates 9-1-1.

To meet the demands of our community, the Communications Center uses System Status Management (SSM) to position ambulances within the response area strategically and to manage deployment and staffing patterns. The Center offers structured academic and on-the-job training, requiring employees to maintain certifications in IAED EMD, and CPR. An estimated 250,000 emergency calls per year are processed through our Center each year. The Center is currently an Accredited Center of Excellence (ACE) through the IAED since 2012.

Our savings can be your savings. A division of Grady EMS is able to ensure the reliability of our fleet by operating a Fleet Services and Production Facility. Taking care of our own vehicles ourselves is a major cost reduction and we can pass our savings on to you!

Comprehensive diagnostic equipment and techniques are used to perform preventative maintenance and repair services at high mechanical standards for all emergency, non-emergency and support vehicles within the system. Each vehicle undergoes a complete service evaluation at prescribed intervals, based on running time hours.

The division uses comprehensive diagnostic equipment and techniques designed to reduce downtime and prevent breakdowns while in service. Each vehicle undergoes a complete service and evaluation at the prescribed intervals based on running time hours. Each mechanic has at least four year’s experience with gasoline and diesel engines and ASE certification is required.

Reliant Emergency Specialties Service

A full-time Fabrication Center provides collision repair, parts replacement and complete remounting services. Our staff has more than 20 years of experience in making repairs on specialty vehicles and can handle everything from the smallest cosmetic enhancement to a total remount and component replacement.

Learn more about our Reliant Emergency Specialties Service, click here.

Nationally, Emergency Departments and 911 EMS systems are strained by serving more and more patients with the same or shrinking resources. In trying to understand ways to combat this squeeze, a focus of particular interest is a small but influential group of high-utilizers who disproportionally request emergency outpatient resources. Research shows these requests are mainly related to non-compliant chronic disorders like substance abuse, mental illness, homelessness, or a combination of all three.

Inappropriate use of hospital Emergency Department (ED) services results in inefficient use of expensive and limited resources. It can also cause secondary problems such as ED boarding, overcrowding, staff or patient injuries, and prolonged length of stay. These contribute directly to workforce burnout and attrition.

The Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) program focuses on coordinating and facilitation efficient, targeted management of outpatient problems that would otherwise burden the ED, decreasing hospital admissions and improving quality of care.

Grady’s MIH program evolved from our Upstream Crisis Intervention Program that was developed and implemented in January 2013. At the time, the program was referred to as Community Paramedicine and was later changed to better describe the level of services provided to our patients. Both our MIH programs embed high-level clinicians with expertise in their respective fields, partnered with Grady EMS field paramedics, and deploy within our 911 system.

Learn more about Grady EMS Mobile Integrated Health.

Grady EMS is able to leverage expertise in the field of pre-hospital emergency care to bring enhanced services, more efficient management, and cost efficiencies to the emergency services of our partners’ patient base.

Partnerships, such as those developed between Grady and RightSite Health, include providing resources to patients experiencing low-acuity concerns, using Rightsite’s team of physicians and navigators to help patients get the care they need.