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Tahlequah, OK - Area residents who may need emergency services will benefit from the initiative and dedication of the Cherokee Nation Emergency Medical (CNEMS) Services program as a result of the sophisticated training coordinated and offered through CNEMS during National Emergency Medical Services Week.

The Critical Care Transport Training held late last month at the Heart O'Hills facility northeast of Tahlequah prepares EMS Paramedics to provide the highest level of pre-hospital care available to any critically injured patient, according to CNEMS Director Kevin McCoy. The program is accredited by the University of Maryland in Baltimore.

"We were very excited about being able to bring in Paramedic participants from throughout this region to take advantage of this high-level training opportunity," McCoy said. In addition to seven CNEMS Paramedics, emergency personnel from Grove, Pryor, and Muskogee, from Joplin, Mo. and Ft. Smith, Ark. attended the ten day event that featured training in use of the Intra-aortic Balloon Pump, advanced interpretation of EKG's and more. McCoy said class test scores exceeded the national average by fourteen percent, according to Brie Geary, the University of Maryland staffer who administered the exams.

"I think it speaks to the quality of the EMS agencies throughout the region to have an average class score of 92% when the national average is 78%," McCoy said.

Rick Bronson, EMT-P and regional EMS coordinator for the Oklahoma State Department of Health, commended class participants and their employer agencies for being involved in the training.

"They are looking to the future," said Bronson. "I am hoping to get this training approved as a paramedic refresher because it exceeds the requirements of the current course." Paramedic certification currently requires a 48-hour refresher course every two years.

The excellence of the Critical Care Transport training is what inspired McCoy to coordinate bringing it to northeastern Oklahoma. "I attended the course three years ago when serving as lead Paramedic instructor for our training program," said McCoy. "It impressed me for a number of reasons, including the fact that it will prepare our program to collect reimbursement for ambulance service at the highest possible rate when new federal guidelines take effect January 1 next year."

"Emergency services are complicated to manage well and are expensive to provide," said Rick Kelly, executive director for the CNHS. "This is because the need can not be as accurately projected as that in most other types of health care programs, and because, as a matter of ethics, emergency service is provided without concern for the patient's ability to pay." According to CNHS Medical Director Gloria Teague, being able to collect reimbursements from sources such as Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance is especially important to public health care providers where the need for service always outweighs available resources.

"That made it easy to support Kevin's efforts to bring the Critical Care Transport training here," said Teague. "Not only should it be reassuring for patients to know they are in very qualified hands when the ambulance arrives, but it allows us to collect the maximum allowable reimbursement for the service and that helps keep us in business."

Persons interested in training provided through the Cherokee Nation EMS program should call 918-458-5403.