Safety
Our Safety Management System Overview
Vigilance is one of our guiding principles and safety is at its very core. To help us meet and exceed our safety goals, we have implemented a safety management system (SMS) based upon best practices in the aviation industry—the highest transportation safety standards in the world:
- Safety Policy
- Safety Risk Management
- Safety Assurance
- Safety Promotion
These elements allow us to identify hazards, mitigate and control risk, monitor for emerging hazards and risk-control effectiveness to ensure the safety of our employees, patients and the communities we serve.
Just Culture & High Reliability
We are committed to being a High Reliability Organization, integrating into our culture concepts of Collaborative High Reliability™ and a Just Culture. To ensure the safety and equitable treatment of patients, employees and the public, we use the only internationally qualified high-reliability program for evaluating risk and proposing risk reduction through effective and resilient system improvements.
This model also manages complex human-performance factors and conducts behavioral assessments using a robust collaborative Just Culture model. This science-based process allows our teams to use a sustainable model that provides a continuous reassessment of organizational and human risks, while empowering our teams to report any unsafe practices.
Safety-Reporting Program
We offer a platform for employees to report safety hazards, which allows all employees to be involved and engaged in their safety program. By encouraging this reporting, we are able to address employee safety concerns to prevent mishaps that could lead to injuries and accidents that impact employees, patients, the community, as well as vital emergency equipment. Employees reporting issues can remain anonymous if they choose.
Our Continuous Commitment to Safety
Driver-Safety Program: We leverage data from more than 7,000 recording devices installed nationwide in our ground assets to monitor and address at-risk driving behaviors. This footage is evaluated by our internal team of analysts who take a non-biased approach to analyzing risk and focus on non-punitive retraining for team members engaged in driving behaviors that do not meet our standards of safety.
Physical Ability Testing: We have a standardized instrument that is used to evaluate EMS team members' job-required physical skills. This screening tool evaluates readiness for work and assesses the physical abilities required to perform various EMS tasks and ensures that our teams are physically ready for the rigors of the job.
Safe-Stretcher Handling: Moving ill and injured patients on a gurney occurs thousands of times each day and we require all employees who will handle a gurney to complete our Safe Stretcher Handling Course. This course was developed in collaboration with in-house educators, safety staff and the equipment manufacturer, and provides protocols that protect our patients and empower our team members.
Emergency Vehicle Operator Course (EVOC) Program: To ensure the safe transport of our patients and medical teams, we require all employees who operate an emergency vehicle to complete our proprietary EVOC curriculum comprised of classroom and road training before students are partnered with a Field Training Officer for real-world experience.
Disaster-Response Safety: When our EMS teams are deployed as part of federal disaster-relief efforts, AMR appoints a Safety Liaison and Safety Officer. Their responsibilities include overseeing proper team-member documentation, site safety inspections and providing daily briefings that include hazard recognition, loss prevention and reporting PPE use and responder health.