The Emergency Medical Services Association of Colorado was formed in Bailey in 1973, during the infancy of the revolution in emergency medical care in the United States, as the Emergency Medical Technician Association of Colorado. It is one of the oldest, and strongest, state EMS associations. EMSAC comprises paid and volunteer professionals both: first responders and EMTs, -basic, -intermediate and -paramedic; physicians, nurses, PAs, EMS instructors and emergency medical dispatchers from virtually every region of Colorado.
Objectives
Through the core association functions of Advocate, Communicate and Educate, EMSAC strives to:
} Improve the skills of prehospital emergency care professionals through ongoing education.
} Work with allied emergency medicine professional organizations to improve the quality of emergency care in
Colorado, and across the nation.
} Promote positive legislation that develops better delivery of emergency medical care.
} Increase the public's awareness of prehospital emergency care.
} Keep Colorado EMS professionals informed of current, and future, issues, trends, reforms and educational devel- opments.
The History of EMSAC
A preliminary meeting of twelve EMTs was held in Bailey, in February 1973, and from that meeting came the rudiments of a state association for EMTs in Colorado. Those twelve participating EMTs were: Williard Crary, Tom DuHamel, Hal Dunn, Betty Duvall, Brett Gray, Bob Hamilton, Peg Hamilton, Walt Kixmiller, Clifford Mestel, Dave Pegram, Steve Woods and Christopher Wurster.
From February until April 1973, those twelve members were involved in discovering names and addresses of all qualified EMTs in the state, contacting them by mail and begging, borrowing and otherwise procuring equipment needed, and finding a meeting place as close to the center of the state as possible, Dillon. All this with a small sum of cash contributed by the original member EMTs.
When that first meeting, a one-day seminar with four panel discussions, rolled around, we hoped for good attendance - perhaps even 50 interested EMTs would come. 120 was the final registration number. Since then, the association has held annual conferences in locations as diverse as Gunnison, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Denver, Greeley and Grand Junction. Quarterly director's meetings are hosted by members of the board, around the state, as well. These directors have been elected by the membership to represent the EMS professionals in each of EMSAC's 11 regions.