Illini Emergency Medical Services, a program of the Illinois Fire Service Institute that provides nontransport care to the 58,000 students, staff and faculty members at the Urbana-Champaign campus, was recognized as a Bronze Level EMS Ready Campus at the annual conference of the National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation.
The recognition acknowledges the significant advances IEMS has made to the emergency preparedness program on the U. of I. campus. Efforts included holding multiple training exercises with outside agencies, requiring all members to complete a wide range of training courses, and cooperating with the University of Illinois Police Department to implement a system to notify all active emergency medical technicians in the event of an emergency.
The U. of I. is the second campus in Illinois, the only university in the Big Ten Conference and one of only 26 schools nationwide to receive this distinction. It’s also the largest institution to receive this recognition in the five-year history of the EMS Ready Campus recognition program.
“We are grateful for receiving the recognition that the effort we have put in has made such a large impact on our campus community,” said Britten Gordon, a sophomore studying molecular and cellular biology and the IEMS director of planning.