Rockdale Citizen

At A Glance:

Fifteen paramedics and EMTs with National EMS will be recognized on May 16 at the CARES Region 3 EMS Awards Banquet in Atlanta for helping to save the lives of 11 patients in Rockdale County over the past year.

Those National EMS employees to be recognized are:

-- Paige Riggs, Paramedic*

-- Mike Spivey, EMT

-- Patrick Simoes, EMT

-- Ryan Harper, Paramedic

-- Rachel Rutland, Paramedic

-- Jason Donald, EMT

-- Christie Cole, Paramedic*

-- Elizabeth White, EMT*

-- Laura McEvers, Paramedic

-- Melissa Holley, Paramedic*

-- Angela Wade, EMT*

-- Anthony Chamblee, Paramedic

-- Paul Herbert, Paramedic

-- Jay Nelson, Paramedic

-- Melissa Page, EMT

*These employees will receive two awardsCONYERS -- National EMS will be honored next week for outstanding service over the past year.

National EMS Director Benny Atkins said that 15 paramedics and emergency medical technicians will be recognized at the CARES Region 3 EMS Awards Banquet in Atlanta for helping to save the lives of 11 patients over the past year.

Atkins explained that the CARES -- Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival -- is a program that tracks patients from the point 911 is called until they are discharged from the hospital.

"These patients were either in cardiac arrest or respiratory arrest or who had a traumatic experience and were able to be discharged from the hospital and have gone on to live a normal life," Atkins said.

Region 3 includes Rockdale, Newton, Gwinnett, Douglas, Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties. The awards ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 16, at Emory Midtown.

"This is a good celebration to see these people get awarded," Atkins said. "It's important to recognize folks who do such hard work every day, and so many times they don't get recognized. They certainly don't do this job for the recognition, but because they have a passion for the job, but this is an excellent way to reward them for their efforts."

Atkins attended the Rockdale County Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday to provide a quarterly report for National EMS, which contracts with Rockdale County to provide ambulance services. National EMS also serves in Morgan, Oconee and Athens-Clarke counties.

Atkins said that the average Priority 1 response time for National EMS is 7.31 minutes -- below the 8.59-minute nationwide standard for emergency medical responders and the standard laid out in the county's contract. Atkins said National EMS has consistently been below this target. Over the past year, the average response time has been as high as 7.63 minutes in August and reached a low of 7.04 minutes average response time in January.

More than 51 percent of the calls National EMS responded to between January and April were for people over the age of 50. Only 2.2 percent of the calls were for patients between the ages of 6 and 12 years. Most of the calls were reported between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., with Wednesday being the highest volume day this quarter.

"This is a typical bedroom community," Atkins said.