Emergency Medical Services

Direct Line

Sierra Vista Hospital Emergency Medical Services is committed to responding to the changing needs of an expanding service area and being a recognized leader in innovative, cost-effective, clinically sophisticated delivery of comprehensive emergency medical services.

Who are we?

  • 25 Staff Members Work for the EMS
    • 2-person Management Team
    • 3-person Community EMS Team 
    • 20-person Ambulance Staffing Team

What do we do?

  • SVH EMS is a patient-oriented 911 EMS Service, providing care for the residents of Sierra County.

Special Skills

  • STEMI Protocol
    • Heparin
    • Clopidogrel
  • ACLS/PALS Cardiac Arrest Protocol for AEMTs
  • Special medications
    • ie Ketamine

Critical Care Team

  • Mobile ICU
  • Carry and administer over 100 different medications
  • Ability to RSI in the field
  • Finger thoracotomy, chest tubes, escharotomy, blood product administration, advanced ventilator operations

Community EMS Team

  • 4 Core Values
    • Patient education
    • Access to medications
    • Primary care physician
    • Transportation
  • Fall prevention
  • Liaison for social services

Mission:

  • The team provides professional, technical extension of SVH medical services to Sierra County and surrounding areas by operating ambulances staffed with 2 licensed EMS personnel 24 hours a day, seven days a week. SVH EMS assists both in the hospital and out in the field.

Where do we go?

  • Primary response area of 4,236 sq miles
  • Mutual aid areas covering over 5,000 sq miles includes:
    • More than 70 miles of Interstate 25
    • Remote, mountainous BLM and USFS lands 
    • Elephant Butte Lake and Caballo Lake State Parks

Services we provide:

  • We answer and make runs to more than 3,800 calls per year
  • Advanced life support personnel is on every ambulance
  • Every unit is ACLS/ PALS/ CPR/ NRP certified
  • We conduct more than 850 inter-facility transfers per year and cover more than 156,000 miles per year
  • We assist other communities all over the State of New Mexico with complex transfer situations

What else?

  • Crisis Intervention Team
  • Wildland Fire Response
  • Search and Rescue

Education

SVH EMS puts pride in education. Education is key to providing the community with the high-quality care that they deserve! SVH EMS has a cadre of instructors:

  • American Heart Association
    • BLS, ACLS, PALS
  • National Association of EMT
    • Pre-hospital Trauma Life Support
    • Advanced Medical Life Support
  • NMSU-DACC
    • EMS Instructor Coordinator
  • Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine
    • Adjunct Faculty
  • Our team also proctors students from DACC that are learning to be EMTs or furthering their careers as paramedics.

Community Involvement:

  • Sports games
  • Easter egg hunts
  • Fiesta Parade
  • Elephant Butte Days
  • Sierra County Fair
  • Community Education
  • Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor day (when Sierra County’s population increases to over 100,000)
  • Career days
  • JROTC animals for kids 
  • Rodeos
  • Vaccine clinics
  • Food pantry
The EMS department does community outreach