An Emergency Medical Service Oversight Committee made up of representatives from St. Mary's Health Care System, Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center and Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties’ governments is confident in the high-quality and timely care provided by National EMS.

EMS is a healthcare specialty that provides emergency medical care to people wherever they may be. Created in the 1960s to improve survival rates from car crashes and heart attacks, EMS today provides highly skilled medical professionals who can administer life-saving care for people suffering from trauma, heart attack, stroke, violence and numerous other life-threatening conditions.

The community’s EMS oversight committee is composed of professionals with extensive experience in emergency medicine, emergency preparedness, public safety, healthcare and professional services. The committee regularly meets to review a host of trends and quality measures, including staffing levels, ambulance positioning, response times, coverage of service zones, peak time availability and staff training. It has the authority to investigate complaints and make recommendations to the hospitals for improvement of EMS services in Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties.

"EMS today is much more than a truck with lights and a siren," said committee member Brittainy Horne, St. Mary's Vice President of Professional and Physician Services. "Ambulances are hospitals on wheels, staffed by highly trained healthcare professionals and equipped with advanced technology. EMS is a complex, fast-changing field that requires tremendous dedication, professional management, and continuous education. Our committee is dedicated to ensuring our community has safe, cost-effective, high-quality EMS. We have found National EMS to be an outstanding partner."

St. Mary's and Piedmont Athens Regional hold zone provider licenses from the State of Georgia to provide EMS services in the two counties. In 2008, both hospitals elected to contract with National EMS to provide service for Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties.

The EMS oversight committee was formed under terms of the contract. The committee is composed of seven members: two appointed by each hospital, one by the mayor of Athens-Clarke County, one by the Oconee County Board of Commissioners, and one from the public appointed jointly by the hospitals. National EMS representatives advise the committee but do not have voting rights.

The oversight committee consistently finds that National EMS provides a high level of service that is comparable to the publicly-owned EMS services in neighboring counties. The committee finds that National EMS meets the terms of its contract by responding to 90 percent of time-dependent calls in 8 minutes or less in urban areas and in 12 minutes or less in non-urban areas.

National EMS responds to 911 calls from four different locations and two staging areas within Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties with 8 to 13 ambulances covering the service area.

The committee also finds that zone coverage meets national standards and exceeds the levels the hospitals alone were able to provide when they operated EMS systems. It further notes that in Athens-Clarke, wait times are further minimized by simultaneously dispatching a fire-rescue unit when an ambulance is dispatched to a priority 911 call.

"Since contracting with National EMS, we have found the company to be an excellent partner in providing emergency medical services to our community," said Dee Burkett, executive director of patient services at Piedmont Athens Regional and member of the oversight committee. "Whenever we have had a question or have investigated a complaint, they have been forthcoming and transparent. We’ve continuously found that National EMS meets or exceeds standards required by their contract, and they continually work to improve services and keep abreast of new technologies and protocols that can enhance patient outcomes for our local community."