Open House held for Hagar Township Public Safety Building
By Lynn Attila

The Coloma Emergency Medical Service (CEMS) has been providing ambulance service to the tri-cities for nearly 40 years. This nonprofit company was established in 1966 as a volunteer emergency transport service working out of Davidson Funeral Home, based in Coloma. CEMS is one of the oldest emergency medical services in the state.

Brian Balow, Executive Director of CEMS and a longtime member, said the funeral hearse was used as an ambulance. “There was a flip sign,” Balow reports. “One side said ‘Ambulance’ and the other read ‘Funeral Home.’”

From its conception, CEMS has provided caring, compassionate pre-hospital care for its residents. For the better part of 23 years, it was a donation-sponsored, nonprofit organization operated by volunteers who provided 24-hour emergency basic life support services to the Coloma area.

But, in 1989, all that changed with the vision of a community. Balow said, “All I had to do was ask myself how would I want my mother or grandmother to be treated?” He knew in his heart he had to do more.
So, with $3,000 in the CEMS bank account, the volunteers went to a private donor who purchased the first ambulance. The rest is history. The CEMS crew turned a $12,000-a- year donation-sponsored business into a venture worth more than $3,000,000 annually.

In 1990, CEMS transitioned from a five-member volunteer organization responding to an average of 400-500 calls per year to a full-time Advanced Life Support (ALS) staff of 50 employees that service 250 square miles, from the shores of Lake Michigan to the Kalamazoo County Line. CEMS responds to 5,000 annual EMS calls and 20,000 annual wheelchair requests for a population of approximately 30,000.

CEMS has a fleet of eight ambulances (six Advanced Life Support and two Basic Life Support) and nine wheelchair units. It has expanded its coverage area to include not only Coloma City and Township, Bainbridge Township and Hagar Township but also Bangor City and Township, Columbia Township, a portion of Arlington Township, Gobles, Pine Grove Township, and Bloomingdale. It has substations in Bangor, Coloma-Hagar, Columbia Township, and Gobles.

CEMS is unique in many ways. It is recognized for setting the standard for quality pre-hospital care by being the first in Southwest Michigan to demand that paramedics be certified in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS), and Critical Care Emergency Medical Technician Paramedic (CCEMTP).

Its nursing staff is required to be Registered nurses with special training in national ENA Trauma Nursing Care Course (TNCC), Emergency Nursing Pediatric Course (ENPC) Advanced Life Support (ALS) and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS).

CEMS was the first in the area to have Critical Care ambulances equipped to carry critical patients that, prior to this, had to be flown by helicopter. They were the first to perform 12 lead EKGs in the field, reducing the time it takes for the patient to receive the medicine that saves valuable heart muscle in the event of a heart attack.

CEMS has personnel trained in Critical Care Transport, ice water rescue, and emergency medical dispatching. It also has CPR instructors and instructor/coordinators able to teach classes right at their own facilities.
The Coloma station is the headquarters of CEMS, completely equipped with a large classroom, boardroom, dispatch center, billing and collection offices, a library, living quarters, two bunk rooms, two bathrooms, a laundry room, and kitchen. It has a large bay that holds six ambulances. There are four other substations in Bangor Township, Coloma-Hagar, Columbia Township (Grand Junction), and Pine Grove Township (Gobles).

Tim Owen, Bronson Hospital (Kalamazoo) EMS liaison, said in the Winter 2004 issue of Bronson Level I News, “Coming from an urban EMS system, my first impression of CEMS Medical was that of a small ‘rural’ company.” He continued, “But, CEMS Medical has the necessary equipment, training, and dedicated staff to provide for the EMS needs of the community and for those of the surrounding communities. Bronson salutes the members of CEMS Medical!”

Balow stressed, “Wherever God takes us… we will continue doing what we have been doing. We just care about people!” He said no destination was too far; no patient unimportant. “We even had two ambulances ready to go to Louisiana after the hurricane,” he said.
Today, due to the rising healthcare cost and public demand for a higher level of pre-hospital care, CEMS now receives funding from the municipalities that it serves, patient insurance companies, and private pay accounts.

CEMS ambulances and equipment may have changed over the years, but their core values have remained the same. Patients and communities come first and the always will.