West Virginia’s rural geographic region brings complexity to the state’s healthcare system including limited resources, long-distance prior to reaching needed services, and a decreasing workforce in the pre-hospital setting. In addition to the complexity of our state’s healthcare system, West Virginia contains some of the highest acuity patients and has been ranked lowest in health in America according to Forbes Magazine. Our sick patients need specialists who, unfortunately, are not available throughout the state of West Virginia, but are instead commonly located in our state’s metropolitan areas such as Charleston and Morgantown. More than 90% of patients in need of specialty services are more than an hour away, and many have no-means of transportation to get there or cannot go by car. Furthermore, West Virginia’s EMS system experienced a severe strain caused by COVID-19 in which financial resources became extremely scarce, more providers left the field, and overhead costs continued to climb due to inflation. Because of this, more than 25 EMS agencies have closed their doors throughout the mountain state since 2021 leaving our citizens susceptible to medical emergencies with lengthened response time and an inability to receive non-emergent transportation to specialty appointments and life-sustaining services. 

Tyler Kirk, CEO of WVLAS began his healthcare career in Emergency Medical Services, has served for more than 3 years as a County Medical Examiner and has most recently served in the long term care industry in multiple administrative capacities during which he has repetitively identified issues that are created by lack of transportation services. This repetitive trend was something he believed needed addressed and he no longer wanted to sit back and watch its negative affects on the communities he cared so much about, so he took action and in 2024 he founded West Virginia Lifeline Ambulance Services, LLC (WVLAS). Upon its founding, the WVLAS administration team was made up of a group of EMTs with experience in Emergency Medical Services throughout the state of West Virginia all of which had served in various capacities throughout their career. The goal of founding this agency has been to increase the availability of ambulance transportation resources to patients throughout our state with a primary focus of those in the most rural regions. 

WV Lifeline Ambulance Services, LLC was inspected by the West Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Services on May 1, 2025 and was officially established upon receiving its operating license. Currently, the agency is licensed as a Convalescent Basic Life Support agency (non-emergent) and provides transportation services to patients in non-emergent situations in Southern West Virginia operating out of the organization’s headquarter location in Mount Hope, WV. Currently, the agency is still growing in team members, resources, and equipment as it is quickly heading towards meeting the criteria for 911 response capabilities and Advanced Life Support interventions as we work towards growing the organization throughout the state to better serve those affected by the dwindling EMS resources. 

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After its establishment, WVLAS served patients across more than 7 counties and 2 states in less than 3 weeks validating the need for the agency's services and allowing the opportunity for the organization to begin expanding the operation. Although primarily serving in Fayette and Raleigh counties, the agency also commonly serves in surrounding counties as well. Our team now consists of both internal and external partners including our education services through S.T.A.R. Academy, billing services through ASAP Medical Solutions, and a continually growing team all with the same goal of mobilizing accessibility to our state!