27 hours ago For more information and to request medical standby coverage at your next event, please contact Kevin Lanterman at 316-660-7975 or kevin.lanterman@sedgwick.gov a minimum of 30 days in advance of the event. Sedgwick County EMS is the primary agency responsible for the pre-hospital care and transportation of persons who become acutely ill or ... >> Go To The Portal
Sedgwick County EMS is the primary agency responsible for the pre-hospital care and transportation of persons who become acutely ill or injured and are in need of ambulance transport to a hospital using Advanced Life Support ambulances. Additionally Sedgwick County EMS provides scheduled ambulance transportation services for persons who require routine transfer by ambulance based on a medical necessity.
Ambulances at your event will not be used to transport patients to the hospital. Dedicated medical personnel and their equipment will remain on scene at all times; if the need arises for a patient to be transported to the hospital the crew on scene will contact dispatch and request a responding vehicle.
Sedgwick County EMS (SCEMS) is committed to providing quality out-of-hospital health care.
Post members who are 16 years of age, after completing some initial requirements, may ride on Sedgwick County EMS units for a 12-hour shift once or twice a month. All Post members have opportunities to participate in other EMS-related events, such as River Festival standbys and some public relations events.
The Sedgwick County EMS Honor Guard ensures that the spirit of honor, reverence and respect is not an afterthought of our organization. The honor guard pays respect to those who died on or off duty to honor their contributions to our community .
Sedgwick County EMS currently uses four mountain bikes and has fourteen members.
Sedgwick County EMS has been saving lives since 1975. But Sedgwick County EMS employees have warned county leaders that poor leadership is driving away paramedics, cutting down the number of ambulances on the street and delaying response times to life-saving rescues.
EMS paramedics say the response was delayed because of an ambulance shortage that night. At one point, EMS had seven calls on hold and no available ambulances. Records show Sedgwick County EMS suffered from an ambulance shortage on May 15 -- something that’s becoming more common as paramedics quit the department.
When you call 911 in Wichita, the odds are good that Sedgwick County EMS will show up late to a life-threatening emergency. When 7-month-old Greyson Seng stopped breathing, Sedgwick County EMS didn’t reach him for nearly 15 minutes after his father’s anguished 911 call. He later died, never seeing his first birthday.
By the time EMS paramedics got to Greyson, 14 minutes and 41 seconds had elapsed. That’s 5 minutes and 41 seconds longer than the 9-minute standard for a patient-not-breathing call. The delay potentially cut Greyson’s chances of survival in half, studies show.
Greyson’s father had to dial 911 twice because the first call mysteriously dropped while he was asking instructions on administering CPR to a baby. Sedgwick County 911 operators are trained to instruct people over the phone how to provide CPR. Records show the operator entered Greyson’s address within seconds.
Since 2019, when Gallagher took charge, Sedgwick County EMS has shown up late to more than 11,000 potentially fatal emergencies, no longer meeting its national accreditation standards.
Gallagher and Sedgwick County Manager Tom Stolz recently called the staffing shortage “a crisis.”
Chance Swaim covers investigations for The Wichita Eagle. His work has been recognized with national and local awards, including a George Polk Award for political reporting, a Betty Gage Holland Award for investigative reporting and a Victor Murdock Award for journalistic excellence.
Chance Swaim covers investigations for The Wichita Eagle. His work has been recognized with national and local awards, including a George Polk Award for political reporting, a Betty Gage Holland Award for investigative reporting and a Victor Murdock Award for journalistic excellence.