National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Week will be celebrated this year from May 21 through May 27.
Emergency Medical Services field responders can be volunteers or career employees. They include:
- Emergency medical responders like volunteer firefighters. These responders have at least 80 hours of training. They can assess patients, provide CPR, and can bandage or splint an injury.
- Emergency medical technicians have at least 150 hours of training. EMTs can perform the duties of an emergency medical responder and can give aspirin, epinephrine, or assist a patient with their own prescribed medications.
- Paramedics have at least 2500 hours of training. Under the order of the county medical program director, paramedics can give 40 different types of medications. They can also intubate a patient to open an airway.
Upper Kittitas County has a mix of volunteers and career employees. Those who work for Upper Kittitas County Medic One are paid staff members, and each ambulance has at least one paramedic on board to provide advanced life support. Advanced life support includes 12-lead EKG monitoring to identify heart attacks and transmit information to the hospital before arrival, intubation to assist with breathing, and the ability to provide certain medications.
In 2016, Upper Kittitas County Medic One responded to 1,219 calls for service and transported 766 patients.
Please join Kittitas County Public Hospital District No. 2 in thanking the volunteer and career first responders of Kittitas County during National EMS Week.
