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Life E.M.S. provides compassionate, high quality ambulance service with regional support facilities and personnel serving Kent County, Ottawa County, Kalamazoo & Portage, Ionia County, Newaygo County, Lake County, and Mason County in Michigan. Our local ownership and community-based staff enhance our ability to be highly responsive to our customers' needs. Operationally, Life E.M.S. maintains a fleet of forty-four (44) fully equipped, custom-designed ambulances. These units are equipped with the latest pre-hospital care equipment available (i.e. Life Pak 10 or 12 portable heart monitor/defibrillators with cardiac pacing, glucometers, pulse oximetry, KED extrication devices). Dispatching of our medic units is performed by our state-of-the-art paramedic and emergency medical dispatcher (EMD) staffed Communications Center utilizing the latest in Computer Aided Dispatch (C.A.D.) and integrated, fully featured, 911 secondary PSAP equipment. Our Metro Chair/Mobility Division provides wheelchair transportation services throughout our service areas. Twenty-four (24) specially equipped vans are utilized to safely provide access for the physically challenged to doctor appointments, nursing facilities, shopping, etc. Life E.M.S. demonstrates a strong commitment to community involvement. This is evidenced by the first aid and CPR classes instructed by our staff, as well as medical support for special events such as festivals and athletic contests. Life Ambulance is a designated American Heart Association (AHA) Community Training Center. Our philosophy at Life E.M.S. Ambulance has always been to provide the highest quality care with the lowest out-of-pocket cost. The Life Care Plus Membership program extends this tradition by providing a way to fight rising health insurance co-payments and deductibles (the amount you pay). We can reflect, as we enter our twenty-fifth year of operation, to know we began in early 1980 with a run volume of zero calls (requests for ambulance service) per day. The equipment we started with consisted of three vehicles, all used, with initially just one fully equipped unit in service. Our dispatch center/business office consisted of a card table with a telephone and radio microphone resting on top. There was also a coffee maker nearby that sat atop some lumber and cement blocks acting as a table for our "reception" area. We were able to survive these small beginnings through dedication, perseverance, and superior patient/customer satisfaction, which allowed us to grow through the numerous challenges faced by any new business as well as those many hurdles, political and otherwise, that are specific to the prehospital care environment. Along the way Life E.M.S. has proven itself by its performance to be worthy of a reputation as one of the highest quality and most progressive prehospital care services anywhere. Today our state-of-the-art Communications Center, that features multiple back-up systems for safety and security, efficiently handles tens of thousands of requests for service each year. These requests for service occur throughout the Life EMS Ambulance area of operations that includes urban, suburban, and rural communities. Life Ambulance has experienced a number of "firsts" over the years. These firsts range from our pioneering efforts in the development of Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU) transport, including portable ventilation capability, to the utilization of Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL) technology in the dispatch and deployment of our ambulances. Further examples of being in the forefront of prehospital care include the leadership roles, maintained by many members of the Life E.M.S. team, in local, state, and national business, healthcare, and community related organizations. Commitment to the highest level of quality performance is something all Life E.M.S. Associates practice everyday. This is demonstrated further by the fact that Life E.M.S. of Grand Rapids and Life E.M.S. of Kalamazoo were two of the first seventeen ambulance operations from across the country, and the first in west Michigan, to become fully accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS). The non-profit commission was established in 1990 to encourage and promote quality patient care in America's medical transportation system. The comprehensive "gold standard" of quality upheld by the commission was developed in conjunction with such organizations as the National Association of EMS Physicians and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), which manages CAAS. Any success we achieve is a result of the efforts of the three hundred associates we employ throughout west Michigan who are unmatched in dedication and expertise to their profession. This has allowed us to develop some innovative service delivery models incorporating partnerships with municipal, hospital, corporate and volunteer organizations. In addition, Life E.M.S. is one of the seven owners/founders of Mobile Health Resources (MHR). MHR is an ambulance network established to provide statewide contracting capability for sophisticated medical transportation services to customers such as managed care, health systems or employer groups. This translates into developing the most cost effective, high quality services tailored to our customers' needs. Life E.M.S. will continue this tradition of being on the forefront of innovation. This, combined with our mission of providing compassionate, cost effective care, provides the best service possible to the communities we serve.