FMC EMS celebrates 50 years
As part of its anniversary, Floyd Medical Center honors its employees.
For 50 years Floyd Medical Center has provided the community with emergency medical services, and on Thursday hospital paramedics, emergency medical technicians and support staff were honored for their service.
The event at the Civic Center brought them together with hospital staff to commemorate the oldest EMS provider in Georgia, said Director Bud Owens.
Owens added it was a chance to thank the 100 employees he feels are the greatest in the business today.
Paul Lowe is one of those employees. He has worked as a paramedic at FMC since 1990.
Since starting, Lowe said he’s seen a lot of changes to the operations.
These changes include implementing advanced technology to improve communication between paramedics and hospital staff and better training that broadened the services EMS personnel can provide on scene.
Paramedic Jordan Pierson said they only have a short window of time to get across town, and expediting information to hospital staff helps them prepare what they need to potentially save a life.
However, there is one thing Lowe said hasn’t
Floyd Medical Center paramedic Don Taylor stands to be recognized for his 34 years of work during a celebration of FMC’s 50 year anniversary of Emergency Medical Services on Thursday.
Paramedics Doug Nichols (left) and Chuck Thaxton look at an old photo of Floyd Medical Center Emergency Medical Services staff, picking out who they know.
changed, and that is the way EMS staff treat patients.
“You want to be methodical and be kind,” Lowe said. “Love, kindness, and empathy — it’s our job to take care of them.”
Doug Nichols described his paramedic role as a “way of life,” along the lines of firefighting or police work. Spencer Lahr / Rome News-Tribune
“You’re closer to people in this profession,” he said. “It’s a tight family.”
Nichols worked for 20 years as a paramedic in Bartow County, and the day after he retired he joined the EMS crew at FMC.
The camaraderie is what keeps Nichols coming back, he said.
“EMS is always an adventure,” Lowe added. Spencer Lahr / Rome News-Tribune
Owens delivered a speech highlighting the impact of implementing EMS in a community that, up to that point, relied on funeral homes to respond to accidents.
Long gone are the days when funeral directors would compete over which patient, either living or dead, was theirs to treat, Owens said.
Now, a group of men and women with medical training are on track to respond to 30,000 calls in 2016, Owens added.
Fifty years is a long time, long enough to see a moon landing, the advent of the internet, proliferation of cellphones and hearses turned to green vans, he concluded.