Sussex Co. EMS receives first national accreditation

SUSSEX CO., Del. – The county’s EMS is officially accredited for the first time ever, meaning they offer a gold standard of care.

The Commission on the Accreditation of Ambulance Services certified Sussex County EMS in December but officials started this process many years ago. We’re told one of the challenges they faced was that the county’s paramedics don’t actually have any ambulances. However the commission was still able to evaluate the county’s policies and procedures, medical director involvement, how EMS staff are taken care of along with finances and the budget to grant them this accreditation.

“We provide the best possible care to the residents and visitors of Sussex County. That’s not just us saying that. We’ve been saying that for many years and we truly believe that,” says Robert Mauch, the manager of quality and standards for Sussex County EMS. “But now an outside organization has come in, taken a look our operations, taken a look at how we function. Not only talking to us as administration but actually going out and talking to the paramedics on duty on the streets and visiting them at their stations and at the end of the day they came back and said ‘yes you guys do meet a very high gold standard.'”

Officials are fairly certain that Sussex County EMS is the first system of its kind, without ambulances, to receive this accreditation. This accreditation lasts for three years and officials say they plan to reapply.