Dear Partners,
Thank you for embracing the effort made by PEMS to provide Continuing Education (CE) and Auxiliary Programs (AUX) in the PEMS Region over the last two years. You worked diligently and offered outstanding education and training, much that would not have been available without the funding by OEMS. Because of your efforts, PEMS was in the top 3 performing regional councils, providing quality EMS education through this program across the Commonwealth.
We regret to inform you that PEMS has been notified that the Office of EMS has discontinued this program effective July 1, 2019. In its place, OEMS will be contracting directly with Education Coordinators across Virginia to provide EMS Continuing Education. As such, the Peninsulas EMS Council will not be contracting for EMS CE and Auxiliary training programs after June 30th, 2019.
In an email sent to EMS Coordinators across the Commonwealth during EMS week, the Virginia Office of EMS stated:
“These contract employees will work under the direction of the Division of Accreditation, Certification and Education to provide innovative continuing education programming for the more than 35,817 certified EMS providers who serve the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia. This new approach to continuing education will allow these educators the autonomy to conduct education on topics of local need and interest as well as ensure that a core set of courses covering state identified topics based on emerging trends and data are made available to EMS providers.
“Our new focus on providing cutting-edge continuing education, at no cost to our providers or agencies, will enhance the collective knowledge base and permit us an opportunity to fine tune continuing education offerings based on data-driven science from our extensive patient care database.”
The Office will be ramping up these educational opportunities statewide over the next several months with approximately 21 educators strategically placed across the Commonwealth.
Again, PEMS is grateful for your continued support as we continue to work together to build a comprehensive, coordinated, effective and efficient regional EMS delivery system. If you have any questions concerning the new EMS CE initiative, please contact Mr. Chad Blosser, Virginia Office of EMS at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
