ProMedica ambulances enter market

The ambulances will be dispatched out of bases at Toledo Hospital and Flower Hospital in Sylvania, both owned by the health provider.

ProMedica Health System, the largest health provider in northwest Ohio, hopes to soon send ambulances to some accident scenes and other emergencies in Lucas County.

The ambulances will be dispatched out of bases at Toledo Hospital and Flower Hospital in Sylvania, both owned by the health provider.

ProMedica will be a relatively small player in the ambulance market when it comes to accident or emergency response. It will use just two of its ambulances for such transports. By comparison, the largest ambulance provider in the county is MedCorp, which has 25 ambulances.

Lucas County has 10 of its own "Life Squad" stations. However, the county's crews are used primarily for severe emergencies, not routine transports that involve more minor injuries. For those transports, which are more common, the county acts as the dispatching center and relies on three private ambulance companies in the county: MedCorp, Rumpf Ambulance, and LifeStar.

LifeStar is owned by ProMedica rival Mercy Health Partners. It has 15 ambulances at seven ambulance bases in the county.