GLENVIEW, Ill. — The Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS) released a first draft of its Ground Vehicle Standard (GVS-2015.) The deadline for public comment is Monday, Dec. 1.
The standards were developed based on input from EMS manufacturers, providers, regulators and industry and safety experts. They are intended to best serve patients by providing ground ambulances that are safe, nationally recognized, properly constructed, easily maintained, and when professionally staffed and provisioned, will function reliably in pre-hospital or other mobile emergency medical service.
The standards aim to:
- Ensure safety of the patient, provider and community
- Ensure quality of the ambulance design
- Support and enhance the quality of patient care and patient movement
- Establish performance-based design standard
- Support efficient EMS operations
- Promote fiscal efficiency and cost benefit analysis
- Incorporate relevant emerging technologies
The standards identify the minimum requirements, performance parameters and design criteria for new ground ambulances only that are built on Original Equipment Manufacturer’s Chassis (OEM) and prepared by the OEM for use as an ambulance.
The standards do not apply to:
- Military vehicles/combat support ambulances
- Wheel chair vans/transport vehicles
- Mass casualty vehicles/ambulance buses
- Refurbished or remounted ambulances
- Fire apparatus