When Providence Alaska Medical Center asked spouses Athena and Charlie Grimm to provide wheelchair transport services about ten years ago, they accepted the opportunity—and challenge. Their first week was a trial-by-fire experience. Another established wheelchair transport business abruptly closed, leaving its stunned clients scrambling for help. “We really had to muster to figure out how we were going to grow this quickly and help the hospital with their needs,” Athena recalls. “As we continued with that service, we realized there was a greater need. We reorganized the wheelchair division into its own separate company and expanded the ambulance service.”

The expansion—which spawned Alaska Medical Transport (AMT)—made perfect sense. The Grimms had owned and operated BAC Transportation since 2000, and they had built a good reputation. Plus, as former volunteer firefighters and medics, they were accustomed to working on ambulances.

Today, AMT is integral to Anchorage’s interfacility transport system, offering on-call, 24/7 emergency and non-emergency medical transportation. With a skilled team of paramedics and emergency medical technicians, AMT is a critical provider of ground transportation between communities—especially during inclement weather. “We are the lifeline outside Anchorage when the environment doesn’t allow flight services to get in,” Athena says. “We’ll go anywhere there’s a road and transport people wherever they need to go.”

To perform its mission of raising up the community and statewide emergency medical services, AMT relies on ultra-fast internet, 5G wireless services, and mobile devices from GCI. Athena has personally used the company for more than twenty years and was naturally inclined to choose GCI’s fiber connectivity for AMT’s main headquarters. GCI’s 5G mobile provides enhanced cell phone coverage to reach personnel inside AMT’s ambulances, and its advanced WiFi supports medical devices that AMT employs to transmit patient-care information in the cloud. Without GCI’s advanced technology, she says, “It would be a paper nightmare. We believe in innovation and working collaboratively with cloud solutions; paper’s not an option for us.”

Headquartered in Alaska, GCI provides data, mobile, video, voice, and managed services to consumer, business, government, and carrier customers throughout Alaska, serving more than 200 communities. The company has invested more than $4 billion in its Alaska network and facilities over the past forty years and recently launched true standards-based 5G NR service in Anchorage. GCI is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Broadband Corporation. Learn more about GCI and its services at www.gci.com.