Community Ambulance enters prestigious club

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – A local emergency medical services (EMS) agency held a ceremony Tuesday afternoon to recognize a job well done.

Community Ambulance, located at 252 Holt Avenue, was celebrating because they joined an elite group having been named an Accredited Center of Excellence (ACE) by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED)

“There are currently about 2,800 centers [world wide] that use the medical priority dispatch system protocols,” said Dr. Jeff Clawson. “There are less than 100 that are accredited.

Dr. Clawson is considered the “Father of EMD (Emergency Medical Dispatch”, and helped found the IAED back in 1988.

To become an ACE recipient, an ambulatory agency must pass the “20 points of excellence” test, which shows an understanding of international practice standards of excellence for emergency medical dispatch providers.

By being given the recognition, Community Ambulance becomes the only EMS service in the entire state of Georgia to have been given two different seals of accreditation. Previously, the company was honored by the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services.

“Dispatch can be done very well, or very poorly and generally the public doesn’t know the difference,” Dr. Clawson added. “That’s the value of of things like accreditation.”

Community Ambulance has been servicing Georgia for nearly 40 years, and has 340 employees working in ten counties.