![]() ![]() Henry Grady started the country’s first citywide ambulance service in 1896. It was providing top-flight emergency services seven years before the Wright Brothers took flight. ![]() She and other staffers, both in the call center and the paramedics responding to the scene, like to say the medical calls run the gamut of seriousness, giving dispatchers an array of situations in a single year that dispatchers in other parts of the country won’t see in 10. It’s very rewarding work because I know we’re making a difference, and I know the next call could very well be helping save someone’s life.” “But every call is unique in EMD, and I learn something new every day. “I’m so glad to be in medical dispatching because every call is different,” Caesar said, noting that police calls are just as much a part of maintaining public safety as medical emergencies. Caesar has had 18 months on the job, although she has 13 years of experience in police dispatching in Atlanta. Grady EMS covers 132 square miles in the central zone of Fulton County and responds to calls in all areas within the City of Atlanta and Fulton County as the primary 9-1-1 ambulance provider. “Within eight months, we were in the 90th percentile and we’re working hard to maintain that,” she said, adding, “it’s not about the score, it’s about what the score means in how well we’re serving the public.” The effort to become an ACE was “well worth it,” Caesar said, noting that the center had been consistently scoring far below acceptable levels in how well dispatchers followed the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) Protocol. It says that we’re the best of the best when it comes to Emergency Medical Dispatching™ in Atlanta, and we’re not just saying so, the NAED says so.” “To us, it’s very much a source of pride. “Not bad,” Grady Communications Director Cliveita Caesar told The Journal. Grady EMS responded to more than 120,000 9-1-1 calls in 2011, dispatching its fleet of 46 ambulances deployed by a communications center staff of 40 dispatchers. The roots of excellence in the Grady Healthcare System starts with Grady, who 121 years ago helped develop a system of care the public taps into every day. Grady Emergency Medical Services being named the third ACE in Georgia and the 165th worldwide would have fit nicely into his big picture of post-Reconstruction Era in which all could prosper, and where all, particularly the poor and destitute, would have access to excellent healthcare. Grady more than a century ago didn’t include Atlanta’s main emergency medical services agency becoming an Accredited Center of Excellence (ACE) in 2012, but the 19th-century newspaper editor and public health visionary certainly would have expected it. ![]() That firm has provided local EMS service for the past nine years.ATLANTA-The New South envisioned by Henry W. He also shared plans to hire some of the employees who currently work at The Medical Center Navicent Health Emergency Medical Services and provide ambulance service in Milledgeville and Baldwin County. Since Hancock County also has contracted with Grady EMS to provide ambulatory medical care, any one of the three ambulances or all three in Sparta could serve as back-up units to the five ambulances in Baldwin County, if an emergency situation were to ever arise.Ĭompton attended last Wednesday night’s board meetings at Oconee Regional Medical Center and explained what Grady EMS plans to do once it takes over the ambulance service later this year. “These are brand new ambulances they are not refurbished or leased,” said Bill Compton, senior vice-president of Grady EMS. The Atlanta-based company, a separate entity of the well-known Grady Hospital, also located in the state’s capital city, has already spent more than $500,000 to purchase of five new ambulances that will be based in Baldwin County. Terms of the new EMS agreement have not yet been released. 1.Īn official with the company submitted a transition plan to local hospital officials last week. Milledgeville and Baldwin County will become the newest territory to be served by Grady Emergency Medical Services when it begins providing coverage locally on Oct. ![]()
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