Office of Emergency Medical Services

Occoquan Woodbridge Lorton Volunteer Fire Department is one of the 719 licensed EMS agencies in Virginia. The Office of Emergency Medical Services provides plans, training and resources through the oversight of one of the largest EMS systems in the nation.

Every person living in or traveling through the Commonwealth of Virginia is a potential recipient of emergency medical care. The first few minutes of an emergency are critical, and for the injured or sick, the care they receive can be a matter of life or death. The first responders who provide this care need proper plans, training and resources. The Office of Emergency Medical Services (OEMS) provides those resources through the oversight of one of the largest EMS systems in the nation.

The Emergency Operations division of OEMS oversees the Health and Medical Emergency Response Teams (HMERT). The HMERT include 16 disaster task forces throughout the state that will bring specialized emergency response teams and equipment to a community that need assistance as a result of man-made or natural disasters. These teams also respond to critical incident stress management (CISM) needs and provide on-site massage therapy and dog therapy to tired emergency response workers.

Virginia is one of the few states with a state-wide system of CISM teams. Currently Virginia has 16 CISM teams that are available 24/7. A Virginia CISM team was sent to the Gulf Coast after hurricane Katrina to support rescue workers. OEMS is working with the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services to provide resources to law enforcement officials. The CISM teams have also been working with military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Accredited 911 Dispatch Centers
The OEMS implemented an accreditation program to help local 911 centers promote and employ emergency medical dispatch (EMD) protocols. This allows EMD dispatchers to give citizens calling 911 guidelines for rendering aid to the sick or injured until EMS resources arrive on scene.

Trauma System Evaluation and Planning Tool
Virginia was selected as the first of three states to pilot the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Benchmark, Indicators, and Scoring (BIS) tool. BIS is designed to help states and all stakeholders within the trauma system to perform comprehensive evaluation and planning for trauma system improvement.