St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center Ambulance Service acquired its first ambulance in 1877. Over the past one hundred fifty years, the Ambulance Service has taken the lead, and has been an innovator in the field of emergency medical services in New York City.
One of the first organized emergency ambulance services in New York City, horse drawn carriages provided emergency response. Later, St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital was one of the first institutions to introduce modern transportation into the emergency medical service. In the 1940's, during the Second World War, our service was one of the first to introduce women into the emergency service field. In 1978, Advanced Life Support Paramedics were assigned to the ambulance service and would respond to life-threatening cardiac and difficulty breathing assignments within the hospitals multiple West Side communities.
Now called the Prehospital Care Department, our Ambulance Service still enjoys the proud distinction of being one of the most modern and most requested services in midtown and the Westside of Manhattan. Our fleet consists of eight Basic and Advanced Life Support Units, each staffed by two skilled New York State and New York City certified EMT's and Paramedics.
The Department has ambulances that are a part of the 911 system for New York City and a fleet of private ambulances. The NYC - 911 system has well over 1.3 million calls per year and is the busiest in the country and possibly the busiest in the world.
The medical director is Phillip Hew, MD, FACEP. He is NYC-FDNY fellowship trained ('95-'96), and has been the medical director for the department since 1996.
Residents have plenty of opportunities to interact with this department. This includes research, providing lectures to paramedics and EMTs, riding on the ambulance, attending EMS meetings throughout the city, working with the medical director on QA projects and much more.
In addition to EMS, the department also works closely with the NYC Road Runners Club and provides medical care at a number of their events, including at the finish line for the NYC Marathon and the NYC Triathlon, on an annual basis.
Starting in 2006, the EMS rotation for the third year residents will be conducted via this department. Each resident will be certified as a base station physician upon completion of the third year.
