CONTRIBUTED CONTENT — At a time when many rural emergency providers are being forced to cut resources due to rising operational costs and changes in insurance reimbursement, Gold Cross Ambulance is allocating additional employees and equipment to its service areas in Washington and Iron counties.
With a fleet of specially equipped emergency vehicles and a state-of-the-art communications center, the company is uniquely positioned to provide comprehensive medical response to any emergency situation across Southern Utah.
Gold Cross has been a leader in emergency medical services throughout Utah for over five decades, providing paramedic, critical, neonatal, bariatric and mass casualty care as well as basic life support and event management standby. The company took control of Washington County’s 9-1-1 response system in 2013 and Iron County’s in 2015.
“Since then, we’ve continued to grow and improve and offer more and more services to residents,” Vice President of Operations Mike Reynolds said. “It’s out of the norm for communities this size to have this level of care in both provider training as well as state-of-the-art resources.”
Gold Cross currently has 12 ambulances serving the greater St. George area and 10 ambulances covering Cedar City and surrounding communities. Additional resources include disaster relief trailers and specialized ATVs designed to render aid in remote areas.
Currently, Gold Cross is in the process of stationing an ambulance in the small town of Veyo, about 20 miles outside of St. George. The presence of full-time emergency services in the central part of Washington County will significantly improve response time for residents of neighboring communities like Dammeron Valley and Brookside as well.
Gold Cross has also brought ambulances – and jobs – into the rural communities of Parowan and Beryl in Iron County. The company employs over 140 Southern Utah residents.
Gold Cross is dedicated to educating the next generation of emergency personnel. In addition to an in-house training department, the company has partnered with technical colleges and universities to train students on the same equipment used in its ambulances. It also employs a full-time training coordinator in Southern Utah to teach CPR and first aid to the public.
Gold Cross also provides an average of 12 medical standbys per month for community events in Southern Utah, including concerts, rodeos, triathlons and parades, often at no cost.
The state’s largest and oldest private ambulance provider, Gold Cross was founded in 1968 with the vision of providing quality medical care to everyone regardless of race, creed, color, religion or the ability to pay. They serve millions of Utahns throughout Washington, Iron, Salt Lake, Uintah and Utah counties.
Unlike municipal emergency services, Gold Cross doesn’t receive a single dollar from taxpayers. It’s a user-funded service with rates regulated by the state of Utah. The company works closely with local, state and federal agencies to assure quality care and access to emergency services for all citizens.
For the eighth year in a row, Gold Cross received the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline EMS Gold Plus Award for implementing quality improvement measures for the treatment of patients who experience severe heart attacks. The company’s paramedics perform 12-lead ECGs, which measure the electrical activity of the heart and can help determine if a heart attack has occurred. Having the correct tools, training and practices allows Gold Cross employees to rapidly identify suspected heart attack patients and trigger an early, potentially lifesaving response from awaiting hospital personnel.
Gold Cross is also the only emergency medical service provider in Utah to earn national accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services, which places the company within the top 1% of ambulance services in the country. Gold Cross received a perfect score during the process, thus demonstrating its commitment to exceptional patient care and safety.
This accreditation is considered the “gold standard” among emergency providers and often exceeds the standards established by state or local regulations.
“We run a paramedic on every call, so the community is getting a much higher level of training and response than what many other areas receive,” Reynolds said. “We’re continuing to bring a lot of state-of-the-art equipment and training into Southern Utah.”
Written by ALEXA MORGAN for St. George News.
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Resources
- Gold Cross Ambulance | Address: 4241 S. River Road, St. George | Telephone: 435-215-2022 | Email: [email protected] | Website.
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