Please distribute broadly…

Good afternoon TEMS Regional Partners,

Following a lengthy delay, the Virginia Office of EMS has announced the Governor’s EMS Awards will continue. Given the late announcement, TEMS is on a tight timeline to collect nominations, have the Nominations Committee review and select award recipients, and have awards produced by our vendor. TEMS is aware that many of the agencies in the Tidewater region have already conducted their Award Ceremonies. So, TEMS is hopeful that submitting agency award recipients may help expedite the process.

The Tidewater EMS Council has begun accepting nominations to Recognize Excellence in Emergency Medical Services. TEMS is asking you to distribute this information throughout your respective agencies and with your healthcare partners to include: Tele-communicators, Nurses, Operational Medical Directors, Health and Safety staff, and Children’s advocates. Part of our mission in providing a regional EMS delivery system, is to recognize those individuals, groups and organizations that Strive for Excellence in providing patient care. That starts with the “Call for Help” through “Full Recovery” and ranges from illness or injury. It is a “continuum” of healthcare.

Additionally, TEMS will be recognizing our nominees and award winners at the TEMS Regional Awards Ceremony at the 2025 Tidewater Healthcare Expo. The Expo will be held May 13-18, 2025 with the awards ceremony being held on Friday, May 16, 2025, 11:30 AM at the Shearon Norfolk Waterside Hotel. As an awards luncheon, nominees and award winners have the opportunity to invite their families to share in being recognized as some of the BEST in the region. TEMS also believes we have the BEST agencies and providers in the state. The award winners from the TEMS Regional Awards Ceremony are submitted to the Virginia Office of EMS, as are award winners from across the Commonwealth. The Virginia Office of EMS then selects a winner from each of the 13 categories to be recognized as a Governor’s EMS Award winner!

Lastly, the Tidewater EMS Council also recognizes lifetime achievement:

TEMS Lifetime Achievement Award

Criteria: An individual who has given twenty-five (25) or more years of direct service to the field of emergency medical services and who has demonstrated an exceedingly high level of vision, commitment and dedication to the EMS system throughout this time.

Eligibility: Any individual serving or has served as an EMS provider, EMS physician, ED nurse, EMS tele-communicator, EMS administrator, EMS educator, or any other first responder or individual who is described in the criteria.

Past Recipients: Edmund Elliott (2024), Edward Brazle (2023), Holly Carpenter (2022), Dan Norville (2021), Dennis Keane (2020), Jim Hoffler (2020), Dominador Fermil (2019), Jim Chandler (2018), and Melvin Smith (2017).

We are asking that you carefully consider submitting nominations with substantial detail and photos that reflects the great work being accomplished in our region by YOUR providers! New this year, TEMS has created an online nomination form. Once on the page, your first choice is a drop down list of each award category. After you select an award category, it will populate the criteria and reveal the questions that must be answered. Please you the following link, which will take you directly to the Nomination Page: https://www.tidewaterems.org/forms/award-nominations

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me via my contact information below.

Best regards, David

“You will never see the end if you give up in the middle.” -Joyce Meyer