An ambulance is a medically-equipped vehicle used to transport patients to treatment facilities , such as hospitals. Ambulances are used to respond to medical emergencies by emergency medical services EMS , and can rapidly transport paramedics and other first responders , carry equipment for administering emergency care , and transport patients to hospital or other definitive care.
Most ambulances use a design based on vans or pickup trucks , though others take the form of motorcycles , buses , hearses , aircraft and boats. Ambulances are generally considered emergency vehicles authorized to be equipped with emergency lights and sirens. Generally, vehicles count as an ambulance if they can transport patients. However, it varies by jurisdiction as to whether a non-emergency patient transport vehicle also called an ambulette is counted as an ambulance.
These vehicles are not usually although there are exceptions equipped with life-support equipment, and are usually crewed by staff with fewer qualifications than the crew of emergency ambulances.
The term ambulance comes from the Latin word ambulare as meaning 'to walk or move about' [ 3 ] which is a reference to early medical care where patients were moved by lifting or wheeling. The word originally meant a moving hospital, which follows an army in its movements.
During the American Civil War vehicles for conveying the wounded off the field of battle were called ambulance wagons. The history of the ambulance begins in ancient times , with the use of carts to transport incurable patients by force. Ambulances were first used for emergency transport in by the Spanish, and civilian variants were put into operation during the s.
