Galveston EMS receives
Texas' highest honor

By Greg Kunkel
Published 12/03/04
Galveston Daily News

The 2004 Private/Public EMS Provider Award recognizes the ground- or air-based EMS for best performance in pre-hospital care.

I am writing this letter to publicly acknowledge and thank the many people and organizations that made it possible for Galveston EMS to receive this award.

An insightful group that included prominent local physicians such as Dr. Sally Abston, Dr. Byron Bailey and Dr. Harry Kelso first set Galveston EMS in motion in the mid-1970s. These doctors put together a model EMS that has provided the best of care for more than 30 years.

Today we respond to approximately 13,000 service calls a year.

Residents are served by four ambulances on duty 24-hours. First, let me thank all of the past and present employees and volunteers of Galveston EMS. The service has been full of dedicated, enthusiastic people in the right surroundings to push this service forward. These medics respond to calls for help in an area with possibly the highest per capita call volume in the state and treat every patient with the utmost in quality and professionalism.

Dr. Russell K. Miller also deserves a thank you for his leadership as the service’s medical director. As director, he lays out the treatment that paramedics will give each patient. Our setting for pre-hospital care could not be better. Galveston EMS is a part of the comprehensive public health services provided to citizens by the Galveston County Health District.

The first director of the service, Warren “Jay” Holland III, remains at the health district as the chief operating officer. He, along with Chief Executive Officer Harlan “Mark” Guidry, provides executive oversight.

I cannot forget to thank our billing staff. They process 13,000 calls, and collections are exceeding expectations, under the oversight of Health District Chief Financial Officer Kathy Barroso. This is providing a large portion of our funding needs and keeps the costs to taxpayers as low as possible.

Additional thanks to UTMB. Not many EMS are as close to a teaching center and have access to a level one trauma center as we at the Galveston EMS. Good outcomes are also a credit to the efforts of the Galveston Fire Department and the Jamaica Beach Volunteer Fire Department.

A decision was made five years ago that the fire departments would become first responders to all major medical emergencies on Galveston Island. As it turns out, the six fire stations and three EMS stations are ideally located throughout the island to give those in need a quick response.

Both fire departments use semiautomatic defibrillators to treat critical heart attacks, which has lead to a 60 percent field resuscitation rate of patients in sudden cardiac death. This save rate could be the highest in the nation; the other two highest published save rates are Seattle (54 percent) and Boston (50 percent).

Put all of the above ingredients together, and the Department of State Health Services could not have picked a more deserving EMS for the Provider of the Year Award.

To the residents of Galveston Island, it has been, and will continue to be, a pleasure to serve this great city and island.

Greg Kunkel is chief of Galveston Emergency Medical Services.

read the press release