The Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS) and CAMTS Global boards of directors met in Fort Worth, Texas, in late October to approve their 2022 budgets and review and approve accreditation applications. In addition, the CAMTS board made key changes to the program that will affect all applicants and accredited services going forward.

CAMTS Discount Announced

Beginning January 2022, CAMTS programs achieving full accreditation for the third consecutive tenure will receive a 10 percent discount on the asset fee, which is currently $1,000 per in-service aircraft and $150 per in-service ambulance. The equitable discount allows all programs, regardless of size, to benefit from cost savings and is applied when the program submits paperwork for re-accreditation. The board supported the discount unanimously as a way to reward programs dedicated to consistently maintaining substantial compliance to accreditation standards. Full details of the discount can be found on camts.org.

Emergency and Intensive Critical Care Combined

The CAMTS board voted unanimously to combine Emergency Critical Care and Intensive Critical Care into a single Critical Care in the upcoming 12th edition standards. While there are defined minor differences in the 11th edition standards, CAMTS was not accrediting at the Intensive Critical Care level pending more data. The final decision to combine the two was made after several lengthy board discussions and interviews with many CAMTS accredited programs and member organizations such as AACN and ACCT. For the purpose of definitively differentiating between Emergency and Intensive Critical Care for CAMTS accreditation, there was not enough clear differentiation beyond some interventions, training, and skills that most programs were already including. 

The change will be published in October 2022 and will be effective as of January 2023. For more details, please refer to the 2021-10 Executive Summary posted on camts.org.

Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) 

In addition, CAMTS Associate Executive Director Dudley Smith briefed the board on the work of the CAMTS Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) committee. The final draft of the MIH standards are expected to be published in early 2022. 

CAMTS Accreditations

CAMTS awarded initial accreditation to rotorwing service provider LifeGuard Air Ambulance of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. For more than 40 years, LifeGuard has served the Cedar Rapids and Eastern Iowa community providing around the clock emergency and critical care transport. The program operates a Bell 407.

Additionally, the following services received CAMTS reaccreditation:

• ACCESS, a fixed wing service in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. 
• Air Methods South Central Region, a rotorwing and fixed wing service in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 
• Ascension St. Vincent StatFlight, a rotorwing service in Greencastle, Indiana. 
• Ascension Wisconsin Spirit Medical Transport, a rotorwing and surface transport service in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.                  
• FlightCare, a rotorwing service in Saginaw, Michigan.
• HealthNet Aeromedical Services, Inc., a rotorwing and surface transport service in Charleston, West Virgina.
• LIFE STAR, a rotorwing service in Hartford, Connecticut.
• Mayo Clinic Ambulance Service, a rotorwing, fixed wing, and surface service provider in Rochester, Minnesota.
• MedFlight, a rotorwing and surface service in Columbus, Ohio. 
• Premier Jets/Lifeguard Air Ambulance, a fixed wing service in Hillsboro, Oregon. 
• Rescue Nurse at On Call International, a medical escort service in Salem, New Hampshire.
• STAT MedEvac, a rotorwing and surface service in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

CAMTS Global Reaccreditation

In addition to voting to invest in increased marketing through travel and appointments outside of the U.S. now that COVID travel restrictions are lifting, CAMTS Global announced one reaccreditation, Rescue Nurse at On Call International, a medical escort service based in Salem, New Hampshire, also accredited by CAMTS.

Both boards will meet again in April 2022.  

This press release was prepared and distributed by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS) and CAMTS Global.