Portal:Medicine/Selected article/20, 2007
An ambulance is a vehicle for transporting people to, from or between places of treatment for an illness or injury. In the modern context it is also the vehicle commonly used to bring medical care to patients outside of the hospital and, when appropriate, to transport the patient to hospital for follow-up care and further testing. There is also a modified form of the ambulance used in several jurisdictions that only carries one member of ambulance crew to the scene to provide care but is not used to transport the patient. In these cases a patient who requires transportation to hospital will require a patient carrying ambulance to attend in addition to the fast responder.
The term ambulance comes from the Latin word ambulare, meaning to walk or move about [1] which is a reference to early medical care where patients were moved by lifting or wheeling. The word is most commonly associated with the land-based, motorized emergency vehicles that administer emergency care to those with acute illnesses or injuries, hereafter known as emergency ambulances. These are usually fitted with flashing warning lights and sirens to facilitate their movement through traffic. (More...)