Teller County EMS highlights lifesaving advances, awards and readiness challenges

The Teller County EMS Council presented a regional update Jan. 22 highlighting increased call volumes, workforce totals and several statewide and national recognitions for local providers. Zach Alvey, vice chair of the council, told commissioners the region has handled about "5,938 calls" so far this year and described a mix of 49 full‑time paramedics and roughly 70 volunteer responders across the county’s districts.

Alvey highlighted several awards and innovations: local providers won Plains-to-Peaks Retac awards for EMT/paramedic performance and documentation excellence; a community paramedic was named community paramedic of the year; and captain Katie Leland and others earned National Stars of Life recognition. The council also reported three critical life saves using prehospital whole blood and described a new responder-alerting app to improve dispatch and landing‑zone information for remote addresses. Commissioners emphasized the link between increasing recreation (and visitor impacts) and demands on EMS and search-and-rescue resources and expressed appreciation for the council’s partnerships with public health and telehealth providers.

Commissioners asked about equipment deployments during recent wind events and about plans to support oxygen‑dependent residents during outages; Southwest Teller EMS confirmed they were able to deploy backup oxygen equipment to at least one home during a windstorm. The board requested continued updates on grant status, regional capacity and any funding requests.