May 20 - May 26 was designated across the United States as National EMS Week. The motto this year was “Help In A Heartbeat”. That is and has always been one of the many saying for Jackson County EMS employees. JCEMS is there for all the citizens of Jackson County 24 hours a day 7 days a week and has mutual aid agreements with Kiowa, Tillman, Greer and Harmon County.

JCEMS employs 38 full time employees which consist of 3 office and billing staff, 7 paramedics, 5 intermediates, 1 advanced EMT, 10 basics and 12 part-time paramedics, intermediate and basics that provide pre-hospital emergency care. Education is a never ending scenerario for the medics of JCEMS. JCEMS employees continue their education through seminars, active training exercises, classroom, and online education and through hands on training. The men and women of JCEMS are highly trained and equipped with some of the newest equipment available in the medical field to provide fast, efficient and effective medical care.

Although saving lives is priority at JCEMS, the employees participate in many other community activities such as adopting a family at Christmas to provide for the wants and needs of the family and children, Halloween Safe Place, Walk a Mile In Her Shoes and the annual Battle of the Badges Blood Drive which is in cooperation with Altus Fire Department, Altus Police Department and Jackson County Sherriff s Office. JCEMS also visits area schools to educate the children on the importance of 911 and to answer any questions the children may have about emergency situations.

JCEMS was recently honored by receiving the Pediatric Golden Hour Award from the OU Trauma One Team for the quick, efficient response and excellent skills in pediatric emergency situations. JCEMS is very proud of this award and consider it a great honor to be selected this year.

Pre-hospital emergency care is not an easy job, but the men and women of JCEMS are very proud of the work that they do and are happy to provide caring and compassionate emergency care to this community. National EMS Week is a time to pause and say thank you not only to the outstanding employees of JCEMS, but to all the Emergency Medical Service personnel across the United States.