During the past year, the Emory Emergency Medical Services have implemented new initiatives in order to further extend its services to the University community, and have gained nationwide recognition for their CPR training program.

The program sent 10 of its medics to the National Collegiate EMS Conference held Feb. 29 to March 2.

“Of over 82 EMS services represented, we were awarded the Striving for Excellence award and the Campus Video of the Year award,” said Josh Rozell, chief of Emory EMS.

Rozell said one of his goals for this year has been to increase campus awareness of EMS and facilitate campus-wide initiatives that will make Emory a benchmark for other institutions to follow, including a campus CPR training last semester for more than 600 people in three days.

“It was the largest ever CPR training event in the United States. We were recently published in Currents, the National American Heart Association newsletter, for our accomplishment,” he said.

This year the organization tried to see how it could connect to the community in non-emergency settings, wrote Dan Sperling, incoming chief of Emory EMS, in an e-mail to the Wheel.

“The service has shown a sense of commitment and professionalism this year that has not always been present in years past,” Sperling wrote.

In an e-mail to the Wheel, Director of Emory EMS Dara Spector highlighted the recent tragedies at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University as reminders of the importance of enhancing emergency preparedness training on campus.

“We are fortunate to have plans and procedures in place to address mass casualty incidents,” she wrote.

Emory EMS has expanded its medical practices by now carrying more advanced drugs for patients with asthma and diabetes. It is also a co-sponsor of Relay for Life, and will provide medical coverage and refreshments to the participants.

“I’m currently working on another program to install AEDs [automated external defibrillators] all over campus as a supplement to the CPR skills that we taught the Emory community,” Rozell said.

The program has also created a brand-new, user-friendly website to serve as an additional resource for students.

“It has a section devoted to information for students about the services we provide and what to do in case of an emergency,” Rozell said.

Emory EMS is a professional volunteer organization with 40 volunteer medics, all certified EMT intermediates or paramedics.

“We respond to over 600 calls a year, with an average response time of under 3 minutes. All our services are provided free of charge, and we work very closely with DeKalb County Fire Rescue,” Rozell said.

The yearlong EMT class, which involves more than 200 hours of lecture and more than 30 hours of clinical rotations on ambulances and in emergency rooms, is a prerequisite for students considering applying to the unit.

Assistant Chief of Training Amy Gilleland said she hopes the EMT class can be recognized as an actual Emory course, “so that students can get credit for the hard work they are putting into it.”

The program has also started a “boot-camp” for newly accepted medics, Rozell said.

“We’ve instituted for the first time this year a 5-day orientation program for students who just graduated the EMT class involving orientation lectures, team-building activities, and an overall bonding experience for the returning medics and the new medics.”

Upcoming Emory EMS initiatives include free blood pressure screenings in front of the DUC and the Rollins School of Public Health in the next few weeks, an annual DUI drill for North Druid Hills High School to educate the younger community on the dangers of drinking and driving, and a CPR training session for 200 participants at Oxford College on March 28.

— Contact Arti Batta