During National Emergency Medical Services Week, May 20 to May 26, I am inviting you to join me in thanking the dedicated EMS professionals in southwestern Michigan.

Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year, Paramedics, Emergency Medical Technicians, and Medical First Responders stand ready to provide lifesaving interventions at a moment’s notice. 

In southwestern Michigan, they are called upon more than 25,000 times a year to lend aid. Regardless of circumstances EMS crews can always be summoned to care for you or your loved ones. And while our EMS crews make this all look easy, it is important for us to understand the hard work and sacrifice behind the scenes that makes it all possible.

EMS professionals in Michigan are required to complete intensive training, successfully pass National Registry testing and complete hundreds of clinical training hours before they are ready to practice in the field. 

From there, it gets even harder.  More than three hundred pages of complex algorithms and protocols provide guidance for every imaginable healthcare emergency.  The EMS worker not only learns these rules of engagement but acquires the ability to apply them during the most stressful situations imaginable.  By using cutting edge technology, drug interventions, and advanced life support procedures they profoundly impact the quality of life for thousands of people every year. 

To say that it takes a special person to work in EMS is an understatement — it takes an amazing person! They are people who can bring order to chaos, hope to hopelessness, and compassion to the cruelest moments that life can throw at us.  They work long hours and sacrifice themselves to ensure that we have peace of mind, knowing that help is never more than a three-digit (911) phone call away. 

If you see one of these incredible public servants this week please take the time to tell them thank you for making our communities stronger and safer.   

Brian Scribner is an Executive Director of Southwestern Michigan Community Ambulance Service