Author - Crawford Coates

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...

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...

July 1, 2024Read more...
Mary Meeks

Mary E. Meeks Selected as the 2024 – 25 Recipient of the Jack Stout EMS Fellowship for Leadership Development

PLATTE CITY, MO — Mary E. Meeks, EMS District Chief for Chatham Emergency Services (CES), headquartered in Savannah, Ga., has been named the 2024 - 25 recipient of the Jack Stout EMS Fellowship. Endowed by FirstWatch, the Fellowship was created in collaboration with the Fitch EMS Foundation. The Fellowship is named in honor of the late Jack Stout, widely regarded as the father of high-performance EMS systems. It aims to provide a platform for chosen individuals...

June 5, 2024Read more...

Celebrating Pride Month at FirstWatch: Honoring Our LGBTQ+ Team Members

As we step into June, FirstWatch is proud to celebrate Pride Month, a time dedicated to honoring the vibrant and diverse LGBTQ+ community. This month serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of inclusion, acceptance, and the ongoing struggle for equality. At FirstWatch, we believe that our strength lies in our diversity. Our LGBTQ+ team members are integral to our success, bringing unique perspectives, creativity, and passion to our workplace. We are committed to fostering an environment where everyone...

November 3, 2023Read more...

Orange County Fire Authority: Leading with Data

Transparency is good. But data without context can mislead. How OCFA leverages data to tell a more complete story. “A critical component of our work is accurately identifying and describing the problems we face as a fire department and as a community,” says Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy. “Once we’ve identified a problem, then we can address it.” The bigger and more complex those challenges, the more important it is to convey them accurately. For Fennessy and OCFA, this begins...

August 2, 2023Read more...
A photo of Lake Stevens (Wash.) PD with children at the lake at an event called Pops with Cops, which provides popsicles to local children.

Keeping Ahead of the Crowd

How Lake Stevens (Wash.) PD continues to innovate, despite staffing challenges Chief Jeffrey Beazizo of the Lake Stevens, Wash., Police Department needs to keep informed in order to keep his community and officers safe. “If something big happens,” he says, “I want to know immediately. With FirstWatch, I get alerted through CAD triggers on my phone as soon as that call comes through. “It’s obviously not every call I need to be alerted to,” he says. “But major crimes and Priority...