CRANBERRY TWP — UPMC Passavant's advanced response unit, an SUV equipped with medical equipment and staffed with advanced care providers, is poised to launch Aug. 30.

The unit, which UPMC dubbed the ARU, will be dispatched through 9-1-1, and will respond to mutual-aid situations that require extra personnel and high-level calls. Staffing the SUV will be paramedics, pre-hospital registered nurses with intensive care and emergency experience and MedEvac flight nurses and paramedics.

Jay Grinnell, founder of Harmony EMS, said the ARU can be helpful given the issues ambulance companies in the area deal with, particularly with staffing shortages.

“We appreciate UPMC's effort. I think it's a good effort, and I think it has good possibilities,” Grinnell said. “If implemented and utilized correctly by the (local ambulance) services, it will be a great benefit.”

The ARU will be stationed in Cranberry, and will serve Cranberry and Jackson townships; Harmony, Mars, Seven Fields and Zelienople; and parts of northern Allegheny and eastern Beaver counties, and will be dispatched to critical-care incidents, as well as for calls for patients with challenging or unpredictable needs.

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