Solid Gold

     LCEMS works closely with two local hospitals to improve cardiac, stroke and trauma care, and attends hospital meetings to look at patient outcomes and to recommend improvements to the hospital and prehospital systems. Twelve-lead EKG transmission using Bluetooth technology has recently been instituted. LCEMS started the North Florida/South Georgia Regional Medical Committee, which resulted in sharing radio channels, sharing and coordinating protocols and cooperative efforts with disaster planning. It is the largest EMS agency in the Region 2 Regional Domestic Security Task Force and takes the lead for regional disaster preparedness in the prehospital area.

     Leon County has been recognized as a Heart Ready County for its efforts in AED distribution and training. In addition to the AED program, LCEMS works within the community to teach about EMS, when to call 9-1-1, CPR and AED training, and hands out bike helmets to local children. LCEMS will be applying for accreditation with the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services this year, hoping to become the fourth EMS system in Florida to win accreditation. The agency's quality management program is progressive. Recently, Six Sigma processes have begun to be incorporated into the QM program and will be enhanced with a new data collection system and quality management data tracking system.

     "We're very proud of what we've accomplished here," says manager Mac Kemp. "We have a great medical director and a group of people who are very progressive. We were given a directive when the county took over a few years ago and it was very simple: Be the best EMS system in the nation. We didn't know if we'd ever achieve that, but we wanted to do the best we could possibly do, and it's been a great experience. We tell the administration we'd like to do something and they tell us to write a proposal and they'll look at it. We have virtually never been turned down for anything. That's where our success comes from: being supported."