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CHOCOLAY TOWNSHIP -- An emergency response team based in Chocolay Township is bringing new immediacy to their service.

Marquette General Hospital has unveiled its E-Unit, an SUV emergency response vehicle.  Hospital administrators say the E-Unit can respond to the scene of an emergency six to ten minutes before the ambulance, saving precious time.

E-Unit paramedics will provide all of the same emergency care on patients and then hand over the transportation responsibility to the paramedics in the ambulance.

Officials also say it expands the coverage area beyond Marquette County.

"It just enhances the services Chocolay Township already provides with their police and fire," said Alyson Sundberg of Marquette General Hospital.  "We also go all the way east to the crossroads, east of M-553 and south to the Skandia Township line and east to the M-28 Marquette-Alger County line."

The E-Unit is now available and will be in service 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

A similar service called MediRide is stationed at Sawyer to cover the southern end of Marquette County.