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SAN ANTONIO
MEDICINE

The Key Role of BCMS in Founding

San Antonio’s EMS System

By Jack Williamson, MD

March 1, 2024 marks the 50th anniversary
of the San Antonio Fire Department Emer-
gency Medical Services (EMS), whose Emer-
gency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and
modulances answered their first calls on
March 1, 1974. Getting EMS rolling in 1974
required the combined efforts of many gov-
ernments and organizations in our commu-
nity, including the San Antonio Fire
Department, the University of Texas Health
Science Center at San Antonio, Southwest
Research Institute and the Bexar County
Medical Society.
The Medical Society played a key role in or-
ganizing this collective effort to launch an
EMS system for San Antonio. In May 1972,
Bill Center, President of the Medical Society,
asked me to chair a new Emergency Medical
Services Committee to develop plans for the
City of San Antonio and Bexar County to im-
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plement an EMS system. As an orthopaedist
who had been practicing in San Antonio
emergency rooms since 1961, I had seen many
victims of trauma who arrived at the hospital
in terrible condition. The ambulance company
who held a contract with the city did not have
trained EMTs, and their ambulances, which
were similar to the hearses they also operated,
lacked the space or equipment to provide ef-
fective medical care in transit.
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I knew that San Antonio could offer its cit-
izens better emergency care. At the Texas
Medical Association meeting in May 1972 at
the HemisFair convention center, I had spo- scenes to start trained medical care within ices in Houston and began developing recom-
4
ken with members of the Houston Fire De- minutes. Direct two-way radio communica- mendations on how to implement EMS in
6
partment, who were displaying one of their tions between EMTs and emergency room San Antonio. One of the recommendations
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new “modulances” that had ample room and staff was also required to provide the right care was to train firefighters as EMTs.
5
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equipment to care for patients in transit. San during transport and after delivery. In the following weeks, the EMS Commit-
Antonio needed not only modulances, but In late May 1972, members of the Medical tee quickly evolved into the San Antonio and
also crews of EMTs stationed across the city Society EMS Committee attended the first Bexar County EMS Council, sponsored
who could be dispatched quickly to accident national meeting on emergency medical serv- jointly by the city, county and Medical Soci-

32 SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE • March 2024