VitaLink

Providing medical ground transport needs in Southeastern North Carolina.

Novant Health VitaLink provides mobile intensive care ground transport services for southeastern North Carolina. VitaLink is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to transport you or a loved one from referring facilities to a higher level of care. When needed, we also provide basic and intermediate life support transport to your home, doctor’s appointments and skilled nursing facilities.

VitaLink Transport Services

Each year our VitaLink ground teams safely transport more than 21,000 patients. Launched in 1991, today VitaLink operates a fleet of more than 30 ambulances that provide multiple transport options including:

Ground Critical Care

Advanced Life Support

Basic/Intermediate Life Support

Non-emergency transport units staffed by EMTs and Advanced EMTs
Units are specially equipped to care for patients with complicated medical histories who need ongoing medical care when being transported for long-term patient care, or to and from physician appointments or dialysis.
Non-emergency ground transport services provided in New Hanover, Pender, Brunswick, and Rowan counties
Teams based in New Hanover County serve as the primary back up to our New Hanover EMS teams during times of busy 911 operations

Neonatal Transport

When our smallest patients need the specialized Neonatal ICU (NICU) care available at Novant Health Betty Cameron Women’s and Children’s Hospital, our VitaLink team partners with the neonatal transport team. We travel up to 120 miles to help stabilize and provide expert care for neonatal patients coming to the NICU.
During transport, patients are cared for by specially trained nurses, respiratory therapists, nurse practitioners and neonatologists.

Nationally Recognized for Safety & Care

Over the years, Novant Health AirLink & VitaLink critical care transport and EMS services have earned recognition for our safety, operational, and patient care efforts, including annual recognition from Mission: Lifeline EMS since 2014. Recent recognition includes:

Gold Plus Recognition from Mission: Lifeline EMS, 2017-2023
Achievement of the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems, accreditation (CAMTS)
College of American Pathologists, accreditation (CAP)

Training & Education

AirLink/VitaLink offers a variety of public outreach and clinical continuing education courses available through our outreach and education teams. If you are interested in training or educational opportunities, please call (910) 667-8520.

Professional medical education

As an approved continuing education provider through the North Carolina office of EMS, our VitaLink team offers continuing medical education courses for prehospital and hospital-based healthcare professionals. Nursing credit is available for a specific course through Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center and the South East Area Health Education Center (SEAHEC).

Safety and helicopter operations

Aircraft Landing Zone Course (2- to 3-hour course with helicopter)
Managing Morbidly Obese Patients
Crew Resource Management: A Ground EMS Perspective
Streamlining Helicopter Transports (appropriate utilization)

Airway and breathing

Difficult Airway Management Workshop (6-hour hands-on program)
Utilization of CPAP
Reacting to the Lost Advanced Airway
Implementing a “Time Out” During Intubation

Cardiovascular emergencies

STEMI Academy (7-hour program)
STEMI Imposters
Heart Failure
Pathophysiology of Common Cardiac Diseases

Pediatric

Pediatric Assessment
Pediatric Respiratory Distress
The Apparent Life-Threatening Event (ALTE)

Trauma

Case Studies in Rural Trauma
Unstable Musculoskeletal Injuries
Pediatric Spine Injury
Prehospital Trauma Life Support®
Cold Emergencies
Trauma Nursing Core Course®

Neurologic

Acute Ischemic Stroke Care
Use of the MEND Exam and RACE Score
Neurosurgical Emergencies
Advanced Stroke Life Support®

General medical

Complications from Chronic Kidney Disease
Recognizing & Managing Sepsis and Septic Shock
Prehospital Antibiotic Administration

Landing zone classes

AirLink/VitaLink provides our regional partners (fire and EMS) with our online landing zone class. One of our crew members will provide a one-hour landing zone presentation and question-and-answer session at your location. This is followed by an aircraft session. At the landing zone we request aircraft through our communications center. We then set up the landing zone and review the safety aspects. Once the aircraft lands and the crew disembark, they will begin the next session.

Public events

Ride-along program

If you are considering a career in critical care transport, you may want to experience a day with a critical care transport provider in our ride-along program.

We offer 12-hour shifts on one of our ambulances or helicopters for anyone engaged in emergency public services and hospital-based patient care. Weight restrictions apply for AirLink ride-along experiences.

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Request Community Education

Our team of safety experts from the Novant Health AirLink and VitaLink teams can participate in your group event or public safety activity in New Hanover County. Upon availability, we participate in public events including: 

Community CPR (Hands Only CPR) training 
Stop the Bleed™ training 
Career days (critical care/flight medical professionals and helicopter pilots) 
Touch a Truck 
Public gatherings (festivals, picnics, fundraisers) 
Parades

To request our participation, call: (910) 667-8973.

Join Our Team

We are always looking for talented members to join the VitaLink and Regional Transfer Center teams. Positions include:

Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)
Advanced EMTs
ALS Paramedics
Critical Care Paramedics
Critical Care Transport Nurses
Regional Communication Specialists
Regional Transfer Center RN

To learn about available positions, search “VitaLink” for clinical positions and “Regional Transfer Center” for communications center positions.

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