SAMU (Brazilian EMS) headquarters in Porto Alegre. Calls are taken by operators and then if considered a serious/real complaint, the call is transferred to doctors from various specialties on site (emergency, cardiothoracic surgery, transplant surgery, even proctology!) who determine whether the call warrants sending an ambulance to the site or not
Map showing how city is divided up into different sectors. Each sector has 1 or 2 ambulances assigned to it.
Can you imagine doing a thoracotomy in the back of this ambulance?? It happens! Several of the ambulances have physicians that ride along with the SAMU (EMS) crew similar to the French EMS system. These can be emergency physicians, general surgeons, cardiothoracic or vascular surgeons amongst other specialites. Physcians do a number of procedures in the back of the ambulance on scene including thoracotomies, thoracostomies, intubation (non-physicians are not allowed to intubate), needle decompression, etc...
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