EMSA Celebrates 30 Years
Thirty years ago this month, the Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) started in Tulsa as a rather unconventional project, the first ambulance service of its kind in the nation. Since then, EMSA has become an international model for emergency medical response, providing service to 16 Oklahoma communities including Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
Over the past 30 years, EMSA has provided 1.54 million patient transports and currently maintains a fleet of 77 ambulances. When the service first started, EMSA had only eight vehicles.
“We are excited to commemorate this wonderful milestone and are pleased to have helped save the lives of our fellow Oklahomans,” says EMSA president and CEO Stephen Williamson. “EMSA is a true Oklahoma success story. Organizations from across the nation and from the United Kingdom, Israel and other countries have traveled to Oklahoma to study the EMSA model.”
In its first full year of operation, EMSA conducted fewer than 8,000 transports; last year EMSA completed more than 113,000. EMSA is operated as a public trust authority with a goal “to ensure the highest quality of emergency medical service at the best possible price,” Williamson says. “The work we do is stressful and hard, but is fulfilling because we help save lives,” Williamson says.
Updated 10-21-2008
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