Our History
From Humble Beginnings
Acadian Ambulance Service
Founded in 1971, Acadian Companies is an employee-owned, multi-faceted company with seven divisions, a global reach and a mission of improving the lives of our patients, customers and employees through our innovative spirit and diverse divisions. Acadian has earned a reputation as one of the nation’s most respected and largest privately held medical transportation companies.
Acadian is one of a select few agencies in the United States to achieve accreditation with both the Commission on the Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS) for our ground operations and the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS) for our air operations.
Since 1971
Technology, Superior Service and Innovation
Timeline
Acadian Ambulance began operations on September 1, 1971, with three young cofounders, two ambulances and eight medics covering 279 square miles of Lafayette Parish. We steadily added parishes and states to our service area over the years, addressing challenges along the way.
In the 1980s, we also began providing contract medics to work on oil installations offshore, leading to long-term partnerships with oil and gas companies. Safety Management Systems is now one of the largest providers of health, safety, environmental, inspection, medical and training services in the country.
Acadian Ambulance expanded to include Acadian Air Med in 1981, and the addition of Air Med’s fixed-wing fleet led to the creation of Executive Aircraft Charter Service in 1991.
We began providing Acadian On Call personal medical alert systems in 1991, which expanded into a broader range of security monitoring under Acadian Monitoring Services and then to security equipment and installations under Acadian Total Security.
In 1993, Acadian instituted an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), giving employees the opportunity to own private stock in the company. Acadian sets up a trust fund for qualifying employees and contributes new shares of its own stock or cash to buy existing shares. Acadian employees currently own 80% of the company stock.
As a recognized leader in EMS education, we were often asked to provide education services for other EMS agencies in addition to our own. To fill this need, we launched the National EMS Academy in 2003. The National EMS Academy is a partnership with South Louisiana Community College and the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service and is fully accredited.
Acadian Health was founded to deliver on the last mile of healthcare by bridging the gap between patient and provider, offering the highest-quality at-home healthcare.
Acadian Federal Resources represents the combined services provided by Acadian Companies’ divisions. Acadian Federal Resources brings Acadian’s proven expertise to the United States government and federal agencies by consolidating our seven divisions into customized solutions.
