In 1974, President Gerald Ford authorized Emergency Medical Services Week to celebrate EMS practitioners and the important work they do in our communities. Back then, EMS was a new profession and EMS practitioners had only just started to be recognized as a critical component of emergency medicine and the public health.
A lot has changed since then. EMS is now firmly established as an essential function and a vital component of the medical care continuum. On any given day, EMS practitioners help save lives by responding to people with medical emergencies, heart attacks, difficulty breathing, falls, car accidents, drownings, cardiac arrests, strokes, or drug overdose. EMS provides basic and advanced medical care at the scene of an emergency and en-route to a hospital. EMS practitioners care for their patients’ medical needs and display compassion to their patients in their most difficult moments.
Madison County recognizes its dedicated EMS specialists at numerous Fire Department and Ambulance agencies that make a positive impact in lives every day.
EMS Week brings together local communities and medical personnel who provide the day-to-day lifesaving services of medicine’s “front line” on Friday, May 26th at the Regional EMS Banquet, to honor excellence in EMS.
Whether celebrated with a company cookout or a catered lunch; an open house, an awards ceremony or even quiet reflection about what it means to be an EMS practitioner, EMS Week is the perfect time to recognize EMS and all that its practitioners do for our communities, our county and our nation.
Madison County’s Office of Emergency Management salutes all the EMS personnel who serve with ambulance services and fire departments across the County. Their service is admirable.