The competition team from Empress EMS won first place at the New Jersey State EMS Conference. During the event, teams tested their prehospital lifesaving skills in realistic scenarios. The Empress team, consisting of Deputy Chief Michael Blecker and Lieutenant Rich Zolli, beat 14 other advanced life support (ALS) teams to bring home the cup. In the SIM Game finals, each team responded to a motor vehicle accident involving multiple vehicles. Blecker and Zolli were required to triage and treat six patients whose injuries ranged from minor to life threatening and whose ages ranged from infant to elderly adult. Points were awarded for patient care quality and the ability to manage the scene. This year's simulation (SIM) competition was the largest to date with 15 paramedic level (ALS) teams and 13 basic level (BLS) teams from New York and New Jersey.

Dan Minerva, VP of Operations and an owner of the company commends the team, “Our crews are highly trained and spend hundreds of hours per year preparing and training for the worst-case. This training was tested in a highly competitive environment against some of the best EMS agencies in the Northeast. As an organization, Empress is very proud that their efforts were rewarded.”

EMS skills competitions have been gaining popularity over the past several years. Empress EMS has competed since 2012 in such national venues as EMS Today in Baltimore and Washington DC and FDNY Medical Special Operations Conference in New York, as well as the New Jersey conference. In these competitions, teams are tested on general medical knowledge, skills proficiency and ability to multi-task in complex and austere environments. Medics may be required to provide such lifesaving interventions as intubations, defibrillation, intravenous medications and CPR. At Empress, we are fortunate to carry devices like video laryngoscopes, intraosseous access devices and a full rapid sequence intubation (RSI) compliment of medications. RSI is a procedure that allows a paramedic in the field to secure an airway in patients suffering from acute respiratory failure using sedation and a paralytic agent. Empress is one of a handful of agencies in the state who are authorized to perform this procedure.
For the past 32 years, Empress EMS has been dedicated to providing our region with unequalled

experience, quality and commitment. We believe this is best evidenced by the long-term relationships we built with local communities and health-care facilities. Empress provides emergency 911 response to the Cities of Yonkers, New Rochelle, White Plains, Mount Vernon and the New York City as part of the FDNY/Montefiore system. Empress is also proud to support the towns of Yorktown, Mohegan Lake, Pelham and Hawthorne with staffing and EMS billing services. Our ambulances provide coverage for 500,000 residents and have responded to over 2,000,000 calls.