Accreditation is a voluntary process that provides a means to demonstrate a level of quality.
The Commission on Accreditation of Air Medical Services (CAAMS) was initiated in 1990 as a direct response to the unacceptable number of air medical accidents in the 1980s. Specific standards were developed for air medical transport to address safety and patient care issues that form the foundation for accreditation.
The Joint Commission (formerly the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) was developed out of similar circumstances. In 1915, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) allocated $500 to establish standards for quality patient care in hospitals as a result of a study that demonstrated dismal outcomes for hospitalized patients. These Minimum Standards for Hospitals eventually led to voluntary accreditation for hospitals by The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, chartered in 1951.1The other agency in the United States that accredits ground medical transport services is the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS). CAAS was initiated in 1990 to offer voluntary accreditation to Advanced Life Support (ALS)-Basic Life Support (BLS) ground transport services, mostly 911 response systems. In 1996, the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) was initiated to offer accreditation to fire and emergency services throughout the world. Neither CAAS nor CFAI address air medical transport, and neither agency focuses on critical care transport.
In 1997, the mission and scope of CAAMS expanded to meet the needs of ground critical care transport services and led to the name change to Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS). There were already extensive standards addressing medical direction and education of critical care teams. Many of the operational standards could also be applied to ground transport. Additional standards were developed specifically for the ground transport vehicle. This expansion was specifically designed for the pediatric and neonatal transport teams, who were requesting an accreditation process that addressed the full scope of their practice. In addition, many air medical services were adding ground transport to meet their transport needs when aircraft were not available because of weather or maintenance, for example.