A typical "squad truck" design for a fly-car. Fly-cars may also be an automobile or an SUV, or even a retro-fitted ambulance, depending on the equipment carried. This fly-car was operated by Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, New York, in 1989. Suffern is a village in the Town of Ramapo Rockland County, New York, United States located north of the State of New Jersey The service has since been merged with others in Rockland County to form Rockland Paramedic Services. Rockland County is a County located in the US state of New York, 12 miles north-northwest of New York City.

A fly-car, also known as a RRV (rapid response vehicle), QRV (quick response vehicle), ERV (Emergency Response Vehicles) , Medic-car or simply an ambulance car, is a production car (often a station wagon or SUV as they have greater carrying capacity) which is provided and manned by an emergency medical service organization in order to provide transport to their staff. A station wagon (or simply wagon) in American, Australian, Canadian and New Zealand usage and an estate car (or just estate A sport utility vehicle ( SUV) is a generic marketing description for a rugged automotive vehicle similar to a Station wagon but built on a light-truck chassis Emergency medical services (abbreviated to the initialism "EMS" in many countries are a branch of Emergency services dedicated to providing out-of-hospital The fly-car enables the crew (often a lone responder) to bring their equipment quickly to the scene of an emergency, and may carry most of the same equipment as a full size ambulance, although it is likely to be limited in its capacity to transport patients. An ambulance is a Vehicle for transporting sick or injured people to from or between places of treatment for an Illness or Injury.

Purpose

A fly-car can help emergency medical organizations use their resources more efficiently, sending this smaller vehicle to the scene of an emergency call, where they can assess an incident's severity (especially where there is reason to suspect the injury or illness is not serious) and call in additional help if required.

The units can also provide 'first aid' assistance for those cases which do not require hospital treatment, and can be dealt with by the clinician on site (such as cuts and bruises to non-dangerous body areas), which saves the larger ambulances for other, more urgent jobs.

This can represent a resource saving on several levels, with most fly-cars costing much less than full size ambulances, and because they can often be staffed by a single person (ambulances require a minimum of two crew members: a driver and an attendant).

Fly-cars can also be used to speed response times. This especially applies in areas such as busy roads, where the smaller cars are able to move through traffic faster than a full size ambulance. Some fly-cars also have off-road capabilities, giving them access to areas that traditional ambulances cannot reach.

Emergency physician rapid response car in Graz, Austria

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. Graz (etymologically from Slovene: Gradec IPA /gradeʦ/ "little castle" with a population of around 290000 as of 2008 (of which 252852 have principal This principle especially applies where the fly-car is crewed by a a paramedic, who can assist lower qualified staff, such as emergency medical technicians on an ambulance, meaning fewer people at the higher qualification level are required. The Emergency Medical Technician ( EMT) exists in many countries and is a health care provider trained to provide prehospital emergency medical care However, dependent on the jurisdiction and needs of the individual service, any level of emergency medical provider from first responder to doctor can be found on fly-cars.

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. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich

Sweden

A Swedish akutbil in Stockholm, 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. "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. ('stɔkhɔlm is Sweden 's Capital and its largest City. It is the site of the national Swedish government, the parliament, and the The Swedish Health care system is a socialized, Public health care system A nurse is responsible—along with other Health care Professionals —for the treatment safety and recovery of acutely or chronically Anesthesia, or anaesthesia (see spelling differences; from Greek grc αν- an-, "without" and grc αἲσθησις 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. Emergency medical services (abbreviated to the initialism "EMS" in many countries are a branch of Emergency services dedicated to providing out-of-hospital An air ambulance is an Aircraft used for emergency medical assistance in situations where either a traditional Ambulance cannot easily or quickly reach Emergency services are organizations which ensure Public safety by addressing different emergencies 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

The car of a German emergency physician (Notarzteinsatzfahrzeug) to the right and an ambulance (Rettungswagen) to the left. An ambulance is a Vehicle for transporting sick or injured people to from or between places of treatment for an Illness or Injury.	German emergency physician rapid response car, a BMW 545i Touring. ( BMW) (Bavarian Motor Works is an independent German automobile manufacturer founded in 1916 The BMW 5 Series is a Mid-size Luxury car / Executive car manufactured by BMW since 1972	SMU-car outside of Lausanne, Switzerland.	Emergency physicians car (Notarzt) together with ambulances at Graz, Austria.
Rexton first responder vehicle from Bergen	Prehospital motorcycle from Oslo

Footnotes

1. ^ http://www.ambulansforum.se/PAM/artiklar/99/akutbilsthlm.shtml (Swedish)
2. ^ http://www.blaljus.se/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1138&sid=b4fd069447d4ac233cec8f50157cdb35 (Swedish)