05/21/2007: "EMS Week: Extraordinary People & Service"

May 20-26, 2007 is the 34th annual Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Week. The event honors the dedication of those who provide day-to-day lifesaving services on the medical "front line."

The 2007 EMS Week theme, "Extraordinary People, Extraordinary Service," salutes the excellent services provided every day, under often challenging circumstances, by the 38 EMTs and paramedics of San Juan Island EMS and their 750,000 colleagues nationwide.

"As this year's theme emphasizes, EMS providers are dedicated to saving lives, even putting their own lives on hold as they respond to medical emergencies," said Dr. Brian Keaton, president of ACEP. "They do this every day without special recognition, which is why we are recognizing EMS providers this year as extraordinary."

San Juan Island EMS (SJIEMS) continues to see an increase in call volume in 2007, after responding on 845 calls in 2006, a 4% increase over 2005. These calls are staffed by a career and volunteer team of island paramedics and EMTs.
In 2007, San Juan Island EMS will celebrate its 30th anniversary of serving local residents and visitors. While SJIEMS has seen many changes over these 30 years, it has never changed its primary focus of delivering the highest quality EMS care available in a compassionate and personal way.
“I congratulate all the members of our EMS team for their dedication and professional patient care. We are proud to have increased the range and volume of services we provided to the community over the last year,” said Jim Cole, Chief of San Juan Island EMS. “The newly added skills of our staff, further modernized equipment, additional transport options, expanded training, and community injury prevention programs are all elements of the ever-growing scope of San Juan Island EMS.”

The Island Air Ambulance is now in service. This healthcare partnership of San Juan Island EMS and Island Air Inc. provides prompt, fixed-wing transport to mainland hospitals for patients with non-critical illnesses and injuries.

The San Juan School of Wilderness EMS has been created to prepare our islands’ residents with critical skills and knowledge in the event of a natural disaster or remote emergency. The school trains both EMS providers and interested citizens in courses specific to their needs during remote and wilderness medical and injury emergencies. More than 100 students have already completed their training. Course information is available online at www.WidernessEMS.org .

San Juan Island EMS is the tax supported, county EMS agency serving the residents and visitors of San Juan Island, Town of Friday Harbor, Brown Island, Stuart Island, Johns Island, Speiden Island, Pearl Island and Henry Island in San Juan County, Washington. It provides emergency medical services, critical care transport, and injury and accident prevention. The staff of career paramedics and volunteer EMTs is available twenty-four hour a day.