Decades ago, as war raged on in Vietnam, forward-thinking leaders conceptualized a way to organize the care of sick and injured civilians in their homes and workplaces and on the streets of the world. Their names included the likes of Frank Pantridge, Jim Page, Ron Stewart, Michael Copass, Gene Nagel, R Adams Cowley, Rocco Morando, Peter Safar and Roger White, among dozens of others. They called the thing EMS. Many of those leaders have retired, some have died, and a few are still going strong.
A few years ago, Dr. Bryan Bledsoe, one of our current crop of leaders, published a thought-provoking piece in a national journal called “Where Will the Wise Men Come From?”
I’ve been pondering the answer to Bryan’s question, and I think I have at least one answer, based on years of observation—that there are many wise men and women, giants actually, laboring quietly among us. The biggest difference between them and the ones whose names we’ve heard is simple: The old ones are famous, and the new ones aren’t.
We can fix that. And given the ease with which we share information today, the remedy should be easier now than ever in our history.
I’m thrilled to introduce you to people whose names you may not know, people like Randy Kuykendall, Chris Montera, Jim Logan, Mic Gunderson, Jon Montano, Pam(bulance) Gripp, Carl Craigle, Gary Friese, Paul Maxwell, Art Kanowitz, Mark Bodane, Sean Caffrey, Darryl Coontz, Doug Kupas, Thom Dunn, Chris Dick (no relation), Valerie DeFrance, Gary Wiemokly, Peter Canning, Gary Wingrove, Kelly Grayson, Dave Ross, Jim Dunford, Steve Berry (you only think you know him!) and a hundred others. None of them seeks recognition, but their achievements have clearly earned it.
To begin, I’d like you to meet Chris Montera. Chris is a 40-year-old paramedic/nurse who currently serves as chief of the Western Eagle County (Colo.) Ambulance District. For us flatlanders, that’s near Vail. Chris got his start in EMS at the age of 16, when he used to run after classes from his high school to an ambulance garage near his home so he could go on calls. He’s a little nerdy (witness his e-mail address, geekymedic@gmail.com), but he’s done some great work with that ability.
Chris founded several online forums intended to bring EMS people together worldwide. He harnessed Skype to parlay the image of a neighborhood gathering spot into the now-famous EMS Garage podcast (emsgarage.com). The Garage is a free weekly online meeting place for people who love EMS, and it has attracted many of them—both famous and not yet so. Week after week, Chris’ special gifts as a brilliant thinker, interviewer, collaborator, leader and moderator are evident as he inspires even the shyest lurkers to share their questions and observations as equals.
Encouraged by instant and widespread acceptance of the Garage, Chris developed a leadership podcast that works the same way. It usually airs on the same evenings as the Garage and caters to the needs of EMS leaders from all over the globe, who log on to seek advice from—or share their practices with—kindred spirits.
That’s just the beginning. Search the web for Chris Montera and you’ll see an exploding array of communication-related enterprises that sprang from the podcasts.
By anyone’s definition, these are just Chris’ hobbies. He’s a successful leader at Western Eagle County; his service is thriving and his people love him. He invariably credits those things to his subordinates—especially his operations chief, Chris Dick. That seems to be an unmistakable sign of wisdom in any leader.
As reported in this issue’s cover story, his vision for Western Eagle County includes partnering with other health care providers to develop a multi-jurisdictional community paramedic program. This will involve a variety of patient support services that have not traditionally been considered part of the realm of what we do. But trust me—in Western Eagle County, they soon will be.
Thom Dick has been involved in EMS for 39 years as an EMT, paramedic, writer and keen observer of the field. He is currently the quality care coordinator at Platte Valley Ambulance Service in Brighton, Colo. You can reach him at boxcar_414@yahoo.com.
