Hauppauge, NY - May 20, 2015 - Suffolk County, for the ninth year in a row, is paying tribute to the county’s EMS providers by lighting the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge in blue, the nationally recognized color that symbolizes the emergency medical services profession.

“We offer our sincere gratitude to our EMS volunteers and professionals for the tremendous efforts and sacrifices they make 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” said Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. “We also wish to pay tribute to two Suffolk County EMS providers who died last year in the line of duty: Ralph Oswald from the Hampton Bays Volunteer Ambulance Corps and an instructor with the SCDHS Division of Emergency Medical Services and Ross Huffer, a veteran Emergency Medical Technician with the Nesconset Fire Department. We honor them for their courage and commitment to others.”

Commissioner of Health Services and former emergency room physician Dr. James Tomarken, said, “Emergency medical services have evolved over the past few decades. The field has become a firmly established key component of the medical care continuum.”

Division of EMS Director Robert Delagi said, “The theme of this year’s EMS Week is EMS STRONG, expressing a powerful message about the EMS profession and the men and women who respond to calls ranging from the mundane to the unimaginable; EMS professionals are there day and night to answer the call to duty.”

Emergency Medical Service in Suffolk County is provided by 99 community-based volunteer fire departments and volunteer ambulance corps, with more than 5,000 EMTs and Advanced EMTs providing patient care and transport. Collectively, these agencies and providers responded to over 129,000 emergency medical calls in 2014.

Additionally, the county is served by two hospital-based specialty care ambulance services: Stony Brook University Hospital EMS and North Shore/LIJ EMS;  several other agencies serving unique response areas, such as Brookhaven National Lab FD, Plum Island FD, Long Island MacArthur Crash Fire/Rescue and the Suffolk County PD Ambulance; and supported by the inter-facility transfers done by commercial ambulance services: Hunter EMS, Inc.; Senior Care Ambulance Service, Inc.; and Emergency Ambulance Service, Inc. 

Suffolk County thanks all of EMS providers for their hard work, dedication to duty, and commitment to the health and safety of our residents.