REACH Air Medical Services announced a merger Friday with Cal-Ore Life Flight, expanding its three-state network of helicopter, airplane and ground ambulances.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
REACH, which is based in Santa Rosa and has more than 300 employees in California, Oregon and Texas, will assume some Cal-Ore general and administrative functions, including financial services, human resources, risk management, business development and referral management.
Cal-Ore, which is based in Brookings, Ore., and has more than 70 employees in Oregon and California, will also receive clinical training and marketing support from REACH. Dan Brattain, president and chief executive of Cal-Ore, will become a member of the REACH Medical Holdings LLC board of directors.
The merger is designed to strengthen both companies while responding to increasing pressures in the health care industry to cut costs, said Jim Adams, chief executive of REACH.
"In order to meet the changing needs and demands of health care reform, hospitals, health care organizations, and insurance companies are looking for ways to streamline operations and expenses both within and outside of the hospital," Adams said in a statement.
"We believe that by creating a structure and system that allows these organizations to work with a single high-quality, patient focused objective of providing complete patient transport services, we will be able to assist them in meeting both their fiscal demands as well as their quality of care expectations," Adams said.
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