Blog

March 26, 2026Read more...

Resilience by Design: Mike Taigman’s Call for Healthier EMS Leadership

At the inaugural NEMSMA Leadership Conference in Arlington, Va., Mike Taigman delivered a session that went far beyond resilience as a buzzword. His message was both personal and practical: resilient organizations do not happen by accident. They are built by leaders who reduce fear, improve trust, model healthy habits and create cultures where people can speak up, recover and thrive. True to form, he opened not with theory but with story and with the kind of story only EMS can produce....

March 17, 2026Read more...

Pinnacle Webinar Series – Patient Centered EMS Systems, Myth, Reality, and How To

The founding president of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement said, “Most healthcare systems claim to be ‘patient centered. ' I’m here to tell you that’s a lie.” Most EMS systems will say they put patients first, and then have schedules that promote fatigue; peer review QA systems that focus on providers, not patients, and measurement systems that inspire fear. During this interactive webinar, we will explore strategies to build and measure systems that are truly patient-centered.

March 12, 2026Read more...

Looking Back on a Career, Forward to the Future

FirstWatch announces Jim Veskerna, after 41 years in EMS, will serve as executive strategist ahead of retirement     By the time he graduated from high school, Jim Veskerna was a certified emergency medical technician (EMT) and California Nurse Assistant.   “When I was 15, I started my first medical class at Lincoln High School in San Diego. I started working at Schaeffer Ambulance Service at 18. They had a rule that you couldn’t drive an ambulance until you were 21, but I challenged that. I was the youngest EMT to ever drive an ambulance there. I guess that’s where my tenacity took hold.”   It’s a tenacity that propelled him through a variety of...

February 24, 2026Read more...

Learning from Whole Blood

Lessons from Montgomery Co. Fire & Rescue Service’s data from this inaugural year The Montgomery County (Maryland) Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS) implemented a prehospital infusion program about one year ago. Through a rigorous quality assurance and quality improvement processes, the agency has continuously evaluated and refined the program with data collected during this period. Following are some of the initial lessons learned. Know, and Learn From, Your Community The Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service is one...

January 16, 2026Read more...

FirstWatch History, & Its Future: Marc Baker Looks Back

I sat down with Marc Baker, vice president and partner at FirstWatch, who is retiring from this position to spend more time with his family. Marc joined FirstWatch in 2002 and in the intervening 23 years has seen the firm grow exponentially, in terms of staff, technological capability, and scope. We wish him a happy and well-earned retirement.  -- Crawford Coates    How did you come to working with Todd and FirstWatch? Left to right: Jake Knight, Keith Griffiths, and Marc Baker...

October 24, 2025Read more...
Chris Cunningham

FirstWatch Chooses Experienced Leader as Next COO

Christopher Cunningham says he’s ready to tackle the profession’s enduring, and emerging, challenges “Public safety has been under tremendous pressure for a long time,” says Christopher Cunningham, 45, who was recently announced as FirstWatch’s new chief operating officer. These are challenges Cunningham knows first-hand. He comes to FirstWatch from the highly respected MedStar, where he served for more than 20 years and which provided EMS to the Dallas-Fort Worth region. Beginning as a field paramedic with the organization, Cunningham was promoted...

June 2, 2025Read more...

Nicholas Wagner Selected as the 2025 – 2026 Recipient of the Jack Stout EMS Fellowship for Leadership Development 

PLATTE CITY, MO — Nicholas Wagner, Captain at Montgomery County (Md.) Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS), has been named the 2025 - 2026 Jack Stout EMS Fellow. Endowed by FirstWatch, the fellowship was created in collaboration with the Fitch EMS Foundation.   “Being selected for this opportunity is both an honor and a call to action,” says Wagner. “It represents a meaningful step forward in my leadership journey and also a chance to bring back innovative ideas that will strengthen...

April 10, 2025Read more...

Paramedic Chiefs of Canada – Burden of Command: Leading Others at the Expense of Yourselves

The session features research highlights as they pertain to the psychological health and well-being of paramedic leaders in Canada, and a showcasing of the results from a recent pilot study with paramedic leaders in Eastern Ontario. Planned activities throughout the session are intended to promote the generation of ideas, the sharing of information.

March 18, 2025Read more...

Whole Blood in EMS Promises a Revolution in Resuscitation

How one county agency is saving lives with prehospital transfusions “It has been said that the three most regulated things in medicine are nuclear medicine radioisotopes, chemotherapy drugs  and blood products,” says Assistant Chief Tim Burns, Chief Training Officer at Montgomery County (Md.) Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS). That’s because whole blood, along with its component parts, is almost always in short supply and require complex storage mechanisms and tight storage controls. But recent medical experience has established that...

February 10, 2025Read more...

Stockton Fire Dept. Delivers Customer Service through Data

How this busy agency supports its neighbors and keeps up with demand with FirstWatch   “The real advantage of FirstWatch,” says Michele Godina Machado, Administrative Analyst II at Stockton (Calif.) Fire Department, “is that I know the numbers are right. We say in this business that if it’s garbage in, then it’s garbage out. FirstWatch allows us to verify the accuracy of our data. So I know with a high level of confidence that when there’s a discrepancy in...

February 10, 2025Read more...
Mary Meeks

Mary Meeks Reflects on a Year as the 2024 Jack Stout EMS Fellow

Serving the People Behind the Data   How do we add value to our community? “That has been stuck in my head as a huge and fundamental question,” says Mary E. Meeks, the 2024 Jack Stout EMS Fellow. As district chief at Chatham Emergency Services (CES), headquartered in Savannah, Ga., she saw the relevance of this question daily in her work. “What do we as an EMS agency do to add value to the community of Savannah? How do we...

February 6, 2025Read more...

Paramedic Chiefs of Canada – The Preburn Project: Preventing Burnout by Predicting Compromised Wellness in EMS Workers

View this in-depth exploration of the innovative Preburn Project: Preventing Burnout by Predicting Compromised Wellness in EMS Workers. This session is designed for EMS directors, EMS administrators, paramedics, dispatchers, mental health professionals and researchers who are committed to improving the well-being of frontline EMS workers.