MEREDITH, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Stewart’s Ambulance Service is expanding into four Maine and New Hampshire Seacoast communities through new contracts to provide municipal 911 Emergency Medical Services (EMS) for Berwick, Eliot, and Kittery, Maine, and Somersworth, N.H.

The four communities are home to more than 35,000 residents and together average about 3,300 Advanced Life Support (ALS) 911 responses and 2,500 transports annually, including along a section of the Maine Turnpike travelled by more than 60,000 motorists daily.

Stewart’s, part of the Transformative Healthcare family of companies, will manage a team of 83 staff and a fleet of 26 ambulances, wheelchair vans, and support vehicles to serve these four communities. Operations will be dispatched and managed locally in Maine and New Hampshire.

Transformative Healthcare New Hampshire chairman Justin Van Etten said: “We are committed to continuing to grow in Maine and New Hampshire to bring the best of our region-wide experience, resources, and industry-leading best practices for patients in these communities. Our focus is and always will be on meeting local needs with locally-based professionals who know and are deeply committed to these communities.”

Somersworth Mayor Dana Hilliard said: “I am excited about the high quality of service and dedication the new member of our first-responder team, Stewart’s Ambulance Service, represents.”

Kittery Fire Chief David O’Brien said: “We look forward to the continuation of excellent service by a New England-based corporation. Stewart’s contract with the Town of Kittery will foster good relationships, and with Stewart’s hiring the existing staff of Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians, the changeover will be seamless to our citizens.”

Stewart’s Ambulance Service has served New Hampshire’s Lakes Region from three locations for more than 35 years and provides primary 911 service to six towns: Center Harbor, Meredith, Moultonborough, Sandwich, Tuftonboro, and Wolfeboro.

Stewart’s parent company, Transformative Healthcare, ranks as the number-one provider of medical transportation in the Massachusetts-New Hampshire market, measured by patients served. Transformative is also the parent company of Fallon Ambulance Service, based in metropolitan Boston, and LifeLine Ambulance Service, operating in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire. In New Hampshire, Transformative’s operating subsidiaries, LifeLine and Stewart’s, have provided medical transportation and EMS for more than 35 years and are the single largest provider of ambulance services in the state. Combined, their staff of 187 operates a fleet of 39 ambulances, chair cars, and other vehicles from eight locations throughout New Hampshire.

Stewart’s/Transformative Healthcare’s contracts with Berwick, Eliot, and Kittery represent the organization’s first expansion into the State of Maine.

As part of the new contracts, Stewart’s will serve several hospitals in the Seacoast and nearby region, including Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.H.; Maine Medical Center in Portland; Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, N.H.; and York Hospital in York, Maine.