FORT WAYNE — Leaders at Parkview Health gathered today to announce the accreditation of the Parkview Samaritan air transport and mobile intensive care units (MICU) by The Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS). CAMTS is a peer review organization dedicated to improving patient care and transport safety through the development of standards, education and services. Parkview Samaritan is the region’s only CAMTS-accredited medical transport system and one of only five accredited systems in the state.

“This accreditation says a great deal about the quality of medical transport services offered at Parkview and it says even more about the team of caregivers behind those services,” said Dan Garman, senior vice president of prehospital and emergency, Parkview Health. “Our teams are focused on providing the highest quality of care and safety in the region and the CAMTS standards serve as a marker of excellence in our industry.”

There are two Parkview Samaritan rotor wing transport units, based at Parkview Regional Medical Center (PRMC) and the Fulton County Airport in Rochester, Ind. The Parkview Samaritan MICU, or ground transport unit, is based at PRMC. Both modes of transportation were awarded accreditation for the emergency critical care and transport of adult, pediatric, intra-aortic balloon pump and neonatal patients.

Compliance with CAMTS standards must be evidenced in the following areas of an organization’s medical transport system: Management and staffing, quality management, patient care, communications, rotor wing and fixed wing standards, surface standards and special operations. Standards are periodically revised to reflect the dynamic, changing environment of medical transport with considerable input from all disciplines of the medical profession.

As of Sept. 24, 183 medical transport systems were CAMTS-accredited nationwide. Parkview Samaritan’s CAMTS accreditation is good through September 2019.