Emergency Medicine

Emergency Medical Services

The Section of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) consists of seven full-time EMS & Med Flight faculty—many fellowship-trained and board-certified in emergency medical services—as well as dedicated advanced practice providers and support staff. Guided by the Wisconsin Idea, we strive to empower all out-of-hospital care providers in the state to provide the highest quality, patient-centered care possible. We work toward this through local, regional and national advocacy, leadership and innovative research, and by bringing quality assurance and advanced educational opportunities to all areas of the healthcare continuum.

Our experience and expertise spans a range of areas, including:

  • Medical direction and quality improvement
  • Advanced physician education and training
  • EMS provider education and training
  • Prehospital simulation
  • Physician field response
  • EMS advocacy
  • Tactical EMS
  • Disaster planning, preparedness and response
  • Event medicine, mass casualty incidents

Meet our Team

Get to know our faculty, providers and staff

EMS Medical Direction

Local EMS Consortium

The UW Health EM Consortium was created in 2009 and consists of EMS agencies throughout Dane County who have contracted with UW Health for medical direction. We partner with Consortium agencies to standardize operating procedures, provide high-yield prehospital education, develop quality programming and support quality management, and lend 24/7 medical direction and field response across the county.

Regional Services

Our EMS faculty directly support prehospital oversight throughout south-central Wisconsin, including at the county and state level through leadership, medical direction, advocacy, and quality assurance initiatives and Tactical EMS support. We helped to develop the first unified, evidence-based medical protocols covering all levels of responders in Dane County so that the highest quality medical care can be provided wherever a medical emergency occurs.

Physician Response

Our physicians are able to provide EMS agencies across Dane County with on-scene medical expertise and consultation, specialized procedure ability, educational outreach and quality assurance 24 hours per day, seven days a week. Established in 2014, the Physician Response Vehicles are currently staffed by a dozen EMS and flight physicians who bring with them 15 board certifications and over 80 years of collective medical experience.

The BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine supports field medical direction via two response vehicles equipped with warning lights, sirens, and specialty medical equipment. These vehicles, dubbed Badger-1 and Badger-2, have been called to high profile events throughout the region, as well as physician outreach to the local paramedic community.

In 2022, we coordinated with the UW Health Clinical Simulation Program to purchase and outfit a new mobile simulation training ambulance (Badger-3).

Physician Education

Educating the next generation of leaders in emergency medicine and EMS is at the core of our mission. We strive to open doors for learners with an interest in prehospital medicine early on in their careers—to provide them with immersive, hands-on experiences that teach them all aspects of physician leadership in EMS systems, as well as the importance of developing trust and reciprocity with first responders. Whether through exploratory learning or advanced competencies in EMS system development, oversight, and improvement, we are dedicated to educating and mentoring physician learners at all levels to become leaders in the specialty of EMS.

Paramedic Education

The EMS Section serves as an institutional partner to the UW Health Emergency Education Center (EEC) through reviewing and approving educational content and regularly serving as instructors for prehospital courses.

From CPR courses to advanced life support courses to prehospital education and EMS liaisons, the Emergency Education Center supports health professional education and training needs throughout the region.

The EEC provides American Heart Association training for the entire UW Health organization and is the lead in EMS primary and continuing education for the UW EMS Consortium. The EEC also has provided training for Primary Paramedic students since the 1970’s and is one of only a handful of centers in Wisconsin to achieve accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation.

The EEC also teaches an advanced, Critical Care Transport Course, and The Difficult Airway Course is the only licensed site in the state of Wisconsin. Our faculty work closely with the EMS Liaison for UW Health, who is also an educator with the EEC and helps to coordinate EMS outreach, quality assurance and continuing education planning.

Dr. Michael Lohmeier serves as medical director for the Emergency Education Center.

Explore courses at uwhealth.org/emergency-education-center.

EMS Section News & Updates