Nontransporting EMS vehicle
In emergency medical services (EMS), a fly-car is a sedan, station wagon, SUV or other non-ambulance automobile enabling an EMS team to bring their equipment to the scene of an emergency. Often the vehicle will be equipped similarly to an ambulance, short of the ability to comfortably transport a patient. The term for the unit may vary with organization policy or practice: support vehicle, supervisor car, QRV (Quick Response Vehicle), and other terms are also used. In some countries, fly-cars are also called "ambulances" for convenience and easier identification for the public.
Purpose
A fly-car can be a resource conserver for an EMS agency, as the crew on arrival can assess an incident's need for additional help. Also, not all first aid cases require hospitalization, so sending the ambulance can be reserved for those occasions which do. This saves resources in part because fly-cars cost much less than ambulances, and because they can be staffed by a single person (ambulances require a minimum of two crew members: a driver and an attendant). Some fly-cars also have off-road capabilities, giving them access to areas that traditional ambulances cannot reach.
Other uses for fly cars include work as a "supervisor" vehicle where an officer or supervisor responds to various calls but does not ride on the ambulance to the hospital, or to provide faster access to accidents on busy highways and in areas which are difficult to access by ambulance.
The levels of training of the crew member varies between jurisdictions. In some areas, higher-trained paramedics do not respond on trdaditional ambulances, but instead attend in fly cars and generally meet the ambulance at the scene of the call, transferring their equipment over to the ambulance for the ride to the hospital. Fly-cars in the United States are also mostly staffed by an ALS provider such as a paramedic, this can be use to assist other ambulance where ALS is needed, but only BLS ambulances are available. These are sometimes referred to as Medic-Cars.
Emergency Physician Rapid Response Car
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In some European countries like Germany or Austria with physician-led emergency services, there are Emergency Physician Rapid Response Cars (in German called NEF from NotarztEinsatzFahrzeug - Notarzt = Emergency Physician, Einsatz = Mission, Fahrzeug = Vehicle), staffed with at least an emergency physician and a paramedic. These cars are only dispatched to serious and potentially life-threatening situations like heart attacks, cardiac arrest or major car accidents.
Sweden
In the Swedish medical system, a fly-car (akutbil) can be equipped with a nurse specialized in anasthesia who is specialized in pain management, paired together with a paramedic. Fly-cars can be staffed around the clock or during the busiest hours of the day and week in order to augment the capacity of the prehospital care provider and can respond both independently and in conjunction with one or more ambulances, air ambulance(s) and other emergency services. As a result of new legislation requiring all ambulances to be equipped with at least one trained nurse, fly-cars have become less common.[1][2]
Photo Gallery
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The car of a German emergency physician (Notarzteinsatzfahrzeug) to the right and an ambulance (Rettungswagen) to the left. -
German emergency physician rapid response car, a BMW 545i Touring. -
SMU-car outside of Lausanne, Switzerland. -
Emergency physicians car (Notarzt) together with ambulances at Graz, Austria. -
Rexton first responder vehicle from Bergen
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Prehospital motorcycle from Oslo
