Collinsville EMS Named to State Honor -- July 18, 2005 -- Collinsville, OK -- www.cvilleok.com

The Oklahoma EMT Association named Collinsville's EMS as the "Advanced Life Support Service of the Year" team last Friday. The OEMTA represents the voice of over 8,000 licensed emergency medical providers and more than 200 First Response Agencies, BLS and ALS Service Agencies in the State of Oklahoma.

The Collinsville EMS team is included in an elite group of licensed ALS Services "whose accomplishments this year have been incomparable" according to Collinsville EMS Director Elizabeth Sullivan. Examples are EMSA's 7 million dollar budget for an entire fleet of new ambulances and Southern Oklahoma Ambulance Service's implementation of an air medical helicopter. Sullivan said it was fortunate the service of the year criteria wasn't based on "budgets and gizmos, or state of the art equipment".

Some of the criteria that helped Collinsville win the award included: information from the state EMS Division regarding annual inspections; provider surveys; the success of Collinsville's in-house billing program; community education and outreach programs (such as ... community CPR classes, CPR programs in the schools, EMS Week participation and health related information published in the local newspaper). An additional criteria was the pre-hospital care provided by the medics of Collinsville EMS based on documentation and data submissions to the state EMS Division.

Collinsville EMS also received nominations in 3 other categories: Advanced Licensed EMT of the Year, EMS Instructor of the Year, and EMS Administrator of the year.

Sullivan was proud that her team had been "recognized for the outstanding services we provide to our community and for promoting the Emergency Medical Services profession in our state." In August, Collinsvile EMS will represent Oklahoma at the National EMT Association's ALS Service of the Year award selection.