Certain medical situations cannot be adequately met even by state-of-the-art medical transport facilities. Such situations can include multiple traumas (such as in serious multi-vehicular accidents) involving on-the-spot life or death matters. In such cases, the time involved in responding to a call and transporting patients to a medical facility is critical.

Advanced medical transport comes in various shapes and formats, but often involves online contact with medical specialists while patients are in transit, the ability to transmit medical readings such as EKGs via the Internet for instant evaluation, etc. The operative factors in advanced medical transport are specialized paramedical personnel and reduced response time.

The services offered by such a facility invariably include a full complement of critical medical procedures, including intravenous administration of life-saving drugs, artificial respiration, the ability to reverse diabetic reactions and drug overdoses, advanced pain control and management via specialized drugs, life support for prematurely delivered babies, etc.

Advanced medical transport facilities maintain a round-the-clock staffing of their rescue treatment units, be it by land, sea or air. The service may be a paid one, but most American states also feature the availability of advanced medical transport outfits that are not operating with a profit motive. These are entirely community-oriented services that are not subsidized by taxpayers contributions.

Advanced medical transport calls for extremely refined communications and computer-aided dispatch systems that respond to an emergency call within a matter of seconds. Vehicles used in such a service are generally state-of-the art and are kept on constant alert. Such services also operate on a constant rotating duty system of specialized staff, so that medical professionals are literally always on call.