Cherokee County has seen a big change in emergency medical care during the past few years. Decades ago, the ambulance service was handled by a local funeral home, and their primary purpose was nothing more than to get the injured or sick to the hospital as quick as they could. It was also during this time that most of the fire departments within Cherokee County were handled by local volunteers. Times have changed, and today, you can no longer be just a firefighter.

As the fire department got into the emergency medical services field, three people have been instrumental in the education and training of firefighters. Dr. Jill Mabley, medical director for the department; Randy Pierson, EMS program director; and Danny West, a division chief; have all worked together to bring the emergency medical care in Cherokee to a higher standard. 

New recruits who come into Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services (CCFES) are trained in firefighting skills for many months, but as soon as they finish, they go directly to school to become an emergency medical technician (EMT). Firefighters today are not only on fire trucks; they are now a part of the ambulance service that was taken over by the County several years ago. Cherokee County has been very fortunate to have several firefighters go forward later in their career to become paramedics, too. In fact, fourteen firefighters graduated from paramedic school last month.

According to Dr. Mabley, There was an effort to make paramedics a more recognized profession that has a national entity supervising it and that can accredit the courses. 

Pierson, who does the training for paramedics in the CCFD, also stated that years ago there was a national EMS agenda that looked at where emergency medical services needed to go in the future and what changes needed to be made to get everyone on the same level.

Because of all these changes, CCFES is now working hard to make paramedic training an accredited program. We were able to teach the program under a letter of review. They looked at us initially, and they said that we had enough of the stuff together to start the program. They came back to do a site visit and notified us of their recommendations on anything that needed to be addressed, and now we are waiting to hear if we are approved. And then, hopefully, we will be an accredited program, stated Pierson.