Johnson Takes The Reins As New EMS Director

Adam Johnson is the new Emergency Medical Services Director for Powder River County, after beginning the role last week. The EMS Director position began last year, following the county's acquisition of the ambulance service.

In his role as EMS Director, Johnson will manage the whole of the EMS system, handling scheduling, training, and supply of the local EMT force and ambulance, as well as working with the commissioners on budgetary and funding needs for the program. In addition, Adam is a trained paramedic, working for the last 10 years as a paramedic during his 20 year EMS career.

We sat down with Adam last week to talk. Johnson is originally from Minnesota, where he grew up with family in the medical field, opening his eyes to the possibilities of the profession; he later volunteered in the medical field while he was just a lad.

Johnson's first official job in medical treatment was as an EMR, or Emergency Medical Responder. Those in the EMR role are able to provide immediate basic interventions until a higher level of care is available, and Johnson is looking at providing an EMR course in the near future for those looking to dip their toes in the field. The EMR course, as well as a planned ambulance driver course, are less time intensive than a full Emergency Medical Technician certification, but still allow for a trained standard of care to be more readily available in the community.

From the EMR role, Johnson went on to become an EMT, and later fulfilled his goal of becoming a paramedic. Adam told us he has worked as a paramedic with fire departments, worked as a deputy sheriff, and served in the EMS role in metro, rural, and remote locations, as well as a medic on the line in the wildland firefighter role.

Recently, Adam lived in Durango, Colorado, where he worked in product design and marketing for a company which designed medical kids and other EMS supplies. This role allowed him to put his knowledge in the field to work designing and better equipping other first responders, and allowed him to network with a number of other emergency medical services around the country.

That role took Adam to SOMA, the Special Operations Medical Association Conference, which is billed as the largest gathering of special operations medical providers in the world, and allows emergency medical providers from the military and civilian world to learn and train together.

Johnson recently finished writing a draft article for the Journal of Special Forces Medicine, which details the use of innovations derived from military emergency care in the civilian field, and how new technologies such as drones may be used in emergency medicine in the future.

Johnson earned a Bachelor's degree from the University of College Cork in Ireland, and is currently pursuing a Master Degree from the Imperial College, London.

Adam's wife, Cressi, is also an accomplished EMS pro-vider, and will also work as a paramedic in Broadus. She detailed her bio to us in an email: "I started in EMS in 1996 as a first responder and swift water lifeguard. I continued on my education to work as an EMT intermediate in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and rural Arizona. I moved to Flagstaff to attend paramedic school in 2006. While in Flagstaff I trained exclusively with the Bear Jaw Wildland Team and also became an arduous wildland firefighter crew boss. I also earned my industrial paramedic endorsement, advanced hazmat life support endorsement, toxicology and critical care certification. After completing all of my training I traveled extensively to impoverished areas of need or areas affected by natural and man made disasters providing disaster relief and community support. My current passions include fundraising support for Project Linus and remote medicine operations."

In speaking to Adam, he commented on the current state of the EMS system in Broadus: "The EMTs here have done an amazing job. I'm here to support the staff, and look forward to to challenge."

The combination of experience and knowledge should serve Adam well in his new role in Powder River County EMS Director, as he looks to upgrade the county's service to an Advance Life Support role, where Adam and Cressi's paramedic credentials will allow them to provide a more substantial level of care than the ambulance service is currently sourced to handle.