New ambulance firm now serving VW area

VW independent/submitted information

A Greenville-based medical transport business has opened local operations in the wake of the closing of Brickner Ambulance Service, which formerly served an area that included Pleasant Township.

Spirit Medical Transport LLC has leased a building at 10852 U.S. 127 on the south side of Van Wert and has begun the process of applying for satellite station licensing at that location. The Greenville company has not purchased Brickner Ambulance Service, nor is this a joint business venture of any type. Deploying from its Greenville location, Spirit began providing ambulance service to the citizens of the area, beginning at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 11.

Spirit Medical Transport is a private medical transportation company in Greenville that serves western Ohio and eastern Indiana, providing Advanced Life Support (ALS), Basic Life Support (BLS), Mobile Intensive Critical Care (MICU), ambulette (wheelchair van) services, and ambulatory transportation any time, day or night.

The owners are Greenville residents Aaron Guthrie (vice president) and Brian K. Hathaway (president/CEO), who started the business in 2007 to meet a need within their own community to provide safe, efficient, and compassionate care to persons requiring medical transportation. The owners both have strong background in EMS and fire suppression.

Spirit was contacted with the news that Brickner Ambulance Service Inc. would no longer be serving the Van Wert area, effective June 10. Guthrie and Hathaway then began exploring the opportunity to establish a satellite station in the Van Wert area. Many longtime former employees of Brickner’s applied with Spirit Medical Transport and have been hired by the new company.

“Thanks to our talented staff,” Guthrie states, “we have proven time and again that our abilities and skills can be relied upon to provide the best pre-hospital care and transportation known to the area.”

Spirit’s 24-hour, state-of-the-art dispatch center communicates with ambulance crews and drivers who are ready to deploy and transport patients at a moment’s notice. Hathaway said Spirit has also expressed an interest to Pleasant Township trustees to provide 9-1-1 ambulance service, as Brickner Ambulance Service did previously.

“Our company’s paramedic crews are available for back-up support to any jurisdiction in the area if the need arises,” Hathaway said.

Spirit Medical Transport has a broad experience base when emergency service is needed. The company provided 9-1-1 services to Wayne Country, Indiana, from October 2014 through the end of February; and on a yearly basis contracts ambulance services for Eldora Speedway in Rossburg and Country Concert at Hickory Hills Lake in Fort Loramie. The full-scale medical transportation services include bariatric cot service, vent-dependent, bi-pap, c-pap, and Mobile Intensive Critical Care patient transports.

The Spirit management team will work over the next several weeks to establish new contracts and working relationships with hospitals, facilities, and agencies in the area.

“We have received multiple inquiries over the past several days about potentially serving a vast number of facilities, based upon the void being created by Brickner Ambulance Service Inc. closing,” Guthrie noted.

Face to face contacts with facilities began June 10, informing facilities of Spirit’s service presence in Van Wert and surrounding communities.

“As a family-owned and operated company, we are dedicated to serving individuals in need with pride, dignity, and compassion,” Hathaway said. “We look forward to serving the individuals and families of the Van Wert area in their time of need.”