Acadian Ambulance Service, 911 and non-emergency medical transportation provider for Orange, Jefferson and Hardin counties, has acquired Stat Care EMS. Stat Care provides emergency and non-emergency services in five counties in Southeast Texas.
Acadian, which began operating in Texas in 2006, plans to assume Stat Care’s operations in Jefferson, Hardin, Jasper, Sabine and Newton counties May 25. There will be no interruption of service.
“This is a case of two good companies coming together,” Stat Care owner Rod Carroll said. “We had been planning to sell the company to our employees as an ESOP; this allows us to do it more quickly.”
Acadian Ambulance, owned by its employees through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, hopes to hire all qualified medics and dispatchers from Stat Care.
“Stat Care and its employees have served Southeast Texas well for more than 60 years,” said Jerry Romero, Acadian’s vice president of operations for Southeast Texas. “Bringing our two companies together will benefit the patients and customers of both.”
Mike Burney has been promoted to Vice President of Operations for Acadian’s new expansion area. Burney, a 23-year Acadian veteran has been serving as Operations Manager in the Lafayette Communications Center for the past 10 years. A Lafayette High School graduate, Burney attended UL at Lafayette where he received an Associate Degree in Nursing. Since joining Acadian in 1987, Burney has also held the positions of paramedic, dispatcher and supervisor.
Romero said, “Mike is well respected the field of EMS and brings a wealth of solid experience to ground operations. We are fortunate to have him lead our operations in Southeast Texas.”
Acadian, established in Louisiana in 1971, is nationally accredited, one of only 134 ambulance services in the world to have earned the prestigious designation.
As part of the acquisition, Acadian will upgrade and expand Stat Care’s communications center to create a state-of-the-art emergency medical dispatch center. All of Acadian’s responses in Southeast Texas will be dispatched from the Beaumont center.
Acadian also is planning to create a National EMS Academy site in Silsbee. The academy, which has locations throughout Louisiana and Texas sites in Orange and Austin, provides training and continuing education for EMTs and paramedics. NEMSA’s paramedic program is nationally accredited through the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs.