How can TEMS play a role in planning and development programs?

The Tidewater Virginia Region is made up of a mix of municipalities to include cities, counties and even military installations.  From the urban environment of Norfolk and Portsmouth to the rural confines of Accomack and Southampton, the southeastern corner of Virginia is home to 1.2 million people with millions of visitors, tourists, and military personnel each year. Within each municipal service there are a host of private ambulance companies that serve as a transport mechanism between hospitals and convalescent facilities.  

These various agencies benefit greatly by allowing mutual aid between borders, as well as harnessing the knowledge and expertise of each other’s talent pool of personnel.  Any good plan or policy benefits greatly from building upon data driven experience from past programs and EMS is certainly no exception.

Each city and county have their own strong identity, culture, challenges, and advantages, yet all the EMS agencies know they share common goals and a common mission.  No one agency has all the answers and no one municipality stands completely alone.  This is where the Tidewater Emergency Medical Services Council (TEMS) comes into play.

It is the role of TEMS to formulate policies and guidelines, as well as staffing, administrative and logistic services to all the EMS agencies above and beyond the confines of any one agency or municipality.  TEMS provides a neutral environment by which all involved parties can come together to convey ideas and overcome obstacles.

Tidewater EMS History
Regional EMS Plans

Regional EMS System Planning

Coordination and cooperation between agencies and municipalities is the focus that TEMS can offer the operational decision makers across the Tidewater Region.  The EMS Medical Operations Committee is where leadership can come together to discuss pressing issues, provide feedback on the success or failure of any new innovations or implementations.

EMS Medical Operations Committee

Any headline will capture your attention with various natural and man-made incidents that require a massive response to minimize loss of life and property.  TEMS acts as a central nexus of regional planning and preparation. Through the use of our talent pool of Mass Casualty Instructors and our response specialists tied in with the Metropolitan Medical Response Team, TEMS offers a diverse range of resources to assist with prevention and planning.

Multiple / Mass Casualty Drill & Exercise Assistance

EMS System Advocacy

TEMS serves as the bridge between local governments and State Level leadership.  The TEMS Council, like other regional counterparts throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, provides an avenue of communication from the Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Services and the local EMS agencies. TEMS can provide a voice act as an advocate with policy makers in Richmond.

Virginia’s Regional EMS Councils
Regional EMS Councils

EMS Program Evaluation – OEMS

EMS Agencies are committed to being data driven entities and part of that cycle is the ability to take information by way of attending symposiums, reading peer reviewed studies, and compiling groundbreaking research being done by other agencies.  TEMS serves as a steering mechanism to promote a smooth rollout of new programs but equally as important, TEMS serves as a collection point for results driven data from the local agencies.  This mechanism is achieved through the Performance Improvement Committee made up of every agencies’ Performance Officer who can digest region-wide reporting and come together on a consensus of success and failures of any program.

EMS Performance Improvement
Regional PI Form