TAMPA, Fla. – The Crisis Center of Tampa Bay's TransCare Medical Transportation Services added a new member to its fleet this week – an ambulance that will provide advanced life support care.

“It’s great, because it definitely expands what we can do for our community," said TransCare Community Paramedicine Manager John Mikula. 

What You Need To Know

  • TransCare Medical Transportation Services was established in 1982 by the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay

  • TransCare was created to offer a different approach to transport people under a Baker Act

  • In 1996, TransCare also began providing medical services and today supports Tampa and Hillsborough Fire Rescues by responding to basic calls
  • A new ambulance that began service on Monday will provide advanced life support care

Mikula said there are a few features that allow this vehicle to provide advanced life support as compared to basic life support.

For one, a paramedic will always be on board. 

“We carry things, too, as far as a cardiac monitor that we have there on our bed," said Mikula. "We carry medications. We’re able to do things as far as IVs, intubation, where we’re putting a tube down somebody’s throat. We carry IV pumps for different medications. We carry a portable vent. It’s the same thing you’d see in a hospital that can help somebody breathe."

The ambulance will transport people who need a higher level of care between medical facilities, which helps ease the burden on local health care systems.

“We really saw during the pandemic how overwhelmed the health care system became as a whole, from one end to the other. And how we can help move patients quickly out of their facilities to maybe another one to help maybe decompress their system is a big thing for us to be able to do that," said Mikula.

According to the Crisis Center, TransCare provided over 24,000 medical transports last year. President and CEO Clara Reynolds said these types of calls were not the original focus of the service when it was established in 1982. 

“At that time, our county was really leading the state of looking at different ways of providing services to individuals who were under a Baker Act. A Baker Act is for an individual who is in a psychiatric emergency and needs to be transported from a location to a receiving facility," Reynolds said. "Normally, law enforcement initiates that Baker Act. Hillsborough County said, you know what? It doesn’t make sense to utilize, number one, that police officer to transport somebody. And also - this isn’t a crime. This individual is in a medical emergency of a different form. Why should we be transporting them in a police car?"

Reynolds said TransCare emergency medical technicians are trained in trauma-informed care and mental health and psychological first aid.

“A lot of these classes that our EMTs and paramedics get when they first come on is unusual and not the norm in EMS. So, that helps them to maybe understand mindsets," Mikula said.

Mikula said there's something else responders to these types of calls need that can't be taught.

“You’ve got to be empathetic and you’ve gotta understand that these people are probably having one of the worst days of their lives, at that point in time," he said.

TransCare provided over 7,500 behavioral health transports in 2021.

For more information about TransCare or other services the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay provides, visit: https://www.crisiscenter.com/