Freedom House Ambulance Service

Freedom House Ambulance Service was the first civilian emergency medical service (EMS) in history to be staffed by paramedics. Founded in 1967 to serve the black Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not only were the majority of its staff African-Americans, it broke medical ground by training its personnel to previously unheard of standards of emergency medical care for patients en route to hospitals.

Background

Prior to World War II, hospitals provided ambulance service in many large cities. With the severe manpower shortages imposed by the war effort, it became difficult for many hospitals to maintain their ambulance operations. City governments in many cases turned ambulance services over to the police or fire department. No laws required training for ambulance personnel, and no training programs existed beyond basic first aid. In many fire departments, assignment to ambulance duty became an unofficial form of punishment.

Inception

Phil Hallen, who at the time ran a foundation providing health care to low-income people, and Peter Safar, a doctor who also pioneered cardiopulmonary resuscitation,^[1] sought to improve responses to medical emergencies—up to that point, either police or firefighters transported patients, and the previous year the Pittsburgh mayor had died en route to the hospital^[2]—as well as create employment opportunities for African-American men in Pittsburgh. They began training men (and eventually women) to drive ambulances and serve as emergency medical technicians, who became the pioneers in the field. The first class had 25 trainees. When services began, Freedom House Ambulance Service had two donated police vehicles and took 5,800 calls, transporting more than 4,600 patients in their first year, primarily in African-American neighborhoods in Pittsburgh.^[3]

Freedom House Ambulance Service operated until 1975, when the City of Pittsburgh launched its own professional ambulance service.^[4]

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