Southern Alleghenies EMS Council | Altoona, PA

Southern Alleghenies EMS Council (SAEMS) is the designated regional emergency medical services (EMS) council for the counties of Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fulton, Huntingdon, and Somerset in South-Central Pennsylvania.

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As specified in Act 37 of 2009, the EMS System Act, a regional EMS council is:

A nonprofit incorporated entity or appropriate equivalent that is assigned by the Department of Health to:

(1) Plan, develop, maintain, expand and improve emergency medical services systems within a specific geographic area of this Commonwealth.

(2) Coordinate those systems into a regional emergency medical services system.

In this role, SAEMS has the primary responsibility to ensure adequate and appropriate prehospital care through regulatory support to the Pennsylvania Bureau of EMS; to act as an advocate for patients needing prehospital care; and to serve as a resource, advocate and ombudsman for prehospital agencies and personnel within our assigned region.