Governor Mead Proclaims EMS Week in Wyoming

Governor Matt Mead proclaimed May 19th-25th  Emergency Medical Services Week in Wyoming. The governor says Wyoming residents can take comfort in knowing that well trained, caring men and women are only a phone call away. He says emergency medical technicians (emts), paramedics, and first responders, many of them volunteers, devote countless hours to keeping their communities, including very rural areas safe. State EMS administrator Andy Gienapp says over 80 percent of the EMS workers in the state are volunteers. Gienapp says when E-M-S jobs became common in the 1970s, their main responsibility was to transport patients to the hospital. Gienapp says a lot has changed. He says at all the levels of providers – EMT, or intermediate or paramedic – we expect them to take interventions and provide appropriate treatment for the patient that they find. And in some areas, that care becomes very complex and we do expect them to make judgments based on their training and their level of expertise.