SOUTHWESTERN CONNECTICUT EMS COUNCIL

BUDGET MESSAGE

The Southwestern Connecticut Regional EMS Council is the State designated area-wide planning and coordinating agency for Emergency Medical Services in the Southwestern Region. The Council is required to provide continuous evaluation of EMS within the Region. We:

Identify service and regional needs

Implement and evaluate programs

Provide technical assistance to EMS providers, hospitals, and municipalities,

Develop uniform EMS treatment guidelines throughout the Region

Provide community outreach and communication

Monitor quality assurance throughout the Emergency Medical System

Our organization has seen significant changes beginning with elimination of all state funding. We have restructured accordingly and also realigned duties between ourselves and the state EMS Office in Hartford. To continue, the Council must rely more on additional public and private support to meet these new challenges.

It has still been a productive year. We presented seminars, reviewed proposed revisions to state EMS regulations and made recommendations to the Department of Health about requests for expanded services.

This year we are sponsoring the second annual EMS Expo that will be held in May 2015. The goal of the conference is to bring together all first responders together in an education setting. The Regional office has established a $10,000 scholarship that will allow two members from every EMS Fairfield county to attend the conference.

In the coming year, we plan to expand our training programs and to offer assistance to communities in the process of being designated “Heart Safe” by the Department of Public Health. We continue to work with the state’s Emergency Management Agency and to develop and update the Southwest Region’s emergency medical services plan. You financial support is essential. I am writing to ask that you include $3,000 in your budget for fiscal year 2014-2015 to support the Southwest Emergency Medical Services Council.

Since 1976, the Southwest Connecticut Emergency Medical Service Council (SWEMSC) has striven to provide the finest and most comprehensive medical services to the people of Fairfield and other towns throughout Fairfield County. The following are some of the highlights:

The EMS plans for each town in the Southwestern Region are being updated

Planning and development meetings with the Regional Medical Advisory Committee, Regional Training Committee, EMS services and local community leaders take place on a regular basis

The regional offices developed uniform EMS guidelines throughout the region

EMS training programs are held regionally every year

SMART MCI tags and kits have been distributed to services throughout the Region

Working with local health departments and area hospitals to develop plans for mass casualty and pandemic events

These are just a few of the ongoing activities that SWEMSC provides for the towns in FairfieldCounty.

The next training program we plan to host is a leadership program for local area EMS crew chiefs.