Emergency medical crews serving communities north of Pittsburgh are about to get some backup from Allegheny Health Network.

To coincide with the opening of the new 160-bed AHN Wexford Hospital this fall in Pine Township, the health network is launching a Paramedic Response Unit that will work with local emergency medical services to provide critical care services.

The unit will be staffed by certified paramedics trained to provide advanced life support treatment and will operate around the clock, seven days a week.

The response team will serve northern Allegheny County as well as Beaver and Butler counties.

The team of paramedics, which will be led by the hospitals Prehospital Care department will be available to assist emergency responders with general calls or if they need additional support for critical patients or when mass casualties occur, hospital officials said.

“The intent of our prehospital care team is always to provide the highest level of care to patients and to help start them on a care path that will ultimately lead them to the best possible outcome,” said Bob Twaddle, vice president of Prehospital Care Services for AHN.

“It is our pleasure to support both patients and our fellow EMS colleagues in this way, and we look forward to getting started in the coming months,” he said.

Twaddle said local EMS services will be able to ask for help by contacting 911, which will dispatch the unit to the scene.

AHN’s first paramedic response unit was launched in 1988 in the Allegheny Valley. A second unit was added in the valley along with units in Belle Vernon in Fayette County and in North Huntingdon, Westmoreland County.

AHN also has a response unit near Forbes Hospital in Monroeville.

The health care system’s new hospital will serve an area with a combined population of more than 215,000 people living in communities from West View north to Zelienople in Butler County, according to hospital officials.

The hospital will offer a full range of medical care including cardiology, cancer treatments, surgery, an emergency department, behavioral health and women’s health services.

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