The History of Lakeview Hospital EMS
In November 1984, Lakeview Emergency Medical Services (EMS) began operations as a basic life support
ambulance service and functioned as a department of Lakeview Memorial Hospital. Lakeview is a nonprofit,
community-based hospital in Stillwater, Minnesota.
Initially, Lakeview EMS—which provides services in Minnesota and Wisconsin—was staffed with a paramedic
and emergency medical technician-ambulance (EMT-A) combination and was the first basic service in the
metro area to carry and use cardiac monitoring and defibrillation equipment. The service also provided
esophageal airway and IV infusion care as well as performed endotracheal intubation. Lakeview EMS helped
to pioneer cellular phone technology in EMS.
Advancing our expertise
In 1985 – approximately one year after beginning its operations – several full-time Lakeview EMT-A staff as
well as some volunteer EMTs – trained to become Emergency Medical Technician-Intermediate (EMT-I)
certified. After receiving the certification, EMT-I became the minimum qualification for full-time employment as
a Lakeview EMS provider.
In fall 1986, Lakeview EMS reviewed the types of emergencies that they had responded to for the previous
two years. That assessment showed a definite need for Lakeview’s EMS staff to provide advanced life support
(ALS) services in the hospital’s Minnesota primary service area. In February 1987, the Lakeview EMS team
submitted to an application to the Minnesota Department of Health to upgrade their practice certification from
EMT-I to ALS providers. In May 1987, the Minnesota Department of Health approved their application and a
month later, they began to offer ALS services. Support from the medical staff, public service departments and
the general public for this elevated service was outstanding. In 1990, Lakeview EMS was granted an ALS
license for the hospital’s Wisconsin service area.
Medical Control
Medical control for Lakeview’s EMS service was initially established at St. John’s Northeast Hospital. Protocols
were established by incorporating current East- and West-Metro practices as well as input from Steven Tredal,
MD, who at the time was an emergency medicine physician at Lakeview Hospital and the hospital’s medical
director.
To help ensure that patients received the highest quality of care, and to help facilitate our continuing education
demands. Lakeview EMS decided to move medical control to St. Paul Ramsey Hospital (currently Regions
Hospital) EMS Department and to adopt East-Metro EMS protocols.
Collaboration with Oakdale, Minn.
In October 1996, Lakeview EMS started a formal mutual-aid agreement with the Oakdale (Minnesota) Fire
Department. The City of Oakdale and the city’s Fire Department wanted to offer a higher level of care to the
residents in their community and asked Lakeview EMS to provide ALS service in a two-tiered system with
Oakdale continuing basic life support at the EMT-I level. After countless hours of putting all the details
together, Lakeview Hospital EMS agreed to provide this service with the Oakdale Fire Department. One of the
24-hour, full-time ambulances was moved from the hospital to a rented space in Lakeview’s primary service
area, which bordered the cities of Lake Elmo and Oakdale. Also, coverage for the third Lakeview ambulance
was increased from eight-hour coverage to 16-hour coverage.
Collaboration with North St. Paul, Minn.
In the early 1997, talks between Lakeview EMS and the North St. Paul Fire Department began. North St. Paul
Fire Department was interested in providing a higher level of pre-hospital care to their community members
and the decision was made by the fire department and the city of North St. Paul to contract out for ALS
support ambulance service and made the difficult decision to opt out of the ambulance business completely. In
July 1997, Lakeview EMS and the city of North St. Paul received tentative approval from the Minnesota EMS
Regulatory Board for Lakeview EMS to provide the ambulance service for North St. Paul. Lakeview’s
ambulance, which was based on the border of Lake Elmo and Oakdale, was moved to the North St. Paul Fire
Department – its new base – and began to be staffed 24 hours a day.
In January 1998, Lakeview EMS started classroom training for the controversial use of Rapid Sequence
Induction (RSI) in the pre-hospital setting. Lakeview EMS was selected by Regions Hospital EMS for the RSI
pilot project. Lakeview Hospital Administration and medical staff were in full support of this project. In April
1998, Lakeview EMS successfully performed their first RSI in the field and became the first 9-1-1 ambulance
provider in Minnesota and western Wisconsin to perform RSI in the pre-hospital setting. Since starting the pilot
project, our EMS providers have performed hundreds of successful RSIs without any complications.
As the Lakeview EMS service grew, the growth in our staff followed. We started with one full-time ambulance
and a second that was staffed with volunteers. Call volumes at that time were approximately 800 to 900 calls
per year. Currently, all of our ambulances are staffed with two paramedics; we employ 35 paramedics – 20 are
full-time and 16 are part-time and casual. We deploy two ambulances, 24 hours a day and a third ambulance
is staffed 16 hours per day. In 2014, Lakeview EMS responded to more than 6,100 calls with an average
response time of less than five minutes. Currently, our service area covers a little over 325 square miles and a
population of more than 100,000 people.
Prior to February 2006, Lakeview EMS received our call information through three county 9-1-1 centers that
included Washington, Ramsey and St. Croix counties. All scheduled or unscheduled transfers out of Lakeview
Hospital were called directly into the EMS department. Washington County and Maplewood 9-1-1 centers
were the two primary dispatch centers that dispatched our trucks. St. Croix County would call Washington
County with the call information and Washington County would dispatch our ambulances for calls in St. Croix
County. With Ramsey County moving to the statewide 800 MHz radio system, we needed to look at our option
to centralize all of our communications and move to the 800 MHz system. In October 2005, Lakeview began
negotiations with Allina Transportations for Allina to provide all dispatching needs for Lakeview EMS. In
February 2006, Lakeview EMS finalized negotiations with Allina Transportation to provide dispatching services
for our service; this continues to be a great partnership today.
In March 2007, Lakeview EMS discontinued the use of paper produced patient-care reports and move to a
more advanced electronic system – Image Trend – that had the ability to enter patient information at the
patients’ side. We continue to use Image Trend, a Minnesota-based company, today.
Education Programs
Through the years, Lakeview EMS has provided various EMS education programs that include Advanced
Cardiac Life Support, First Responder, Basic First Aid and Basic Cardiac Life Support. Lakeview has worked
closely with local police, sheriff and fire departments on training that helps to ensure that patients get the best
quality of care possible. Lakeview also works with local community groups, businesses and industry
emergency response teams on training, EMS preparation and to provide ambulance tours. In July 2008, our
Education Coordinator position description was rewritten and changed from part-time to a full-time
Education/QA Coordinator. Current call volumes, daily QA, and ongoing continuing education requirements
made it no longer feasible to continue this position in a half-time capacity. In 2015, Lakeview transitioned the
Education/QA Coordinator to an Operations Supervisor who now oversees the day-to-day activity of Lakeview
EMS, in addition to the education and training.
Lakeview Emergency Medical Services has grown to be a highly respected, professional, advanced life
support ambulance service. We could not have reached this point without dedicated staff such as you! We will
continue to pursue the highest level of quality care and support to our patients, staff, hospital, and community.
With your continued support, Lakeview EMS will continue to offer innovative, technologically advanced
solutions to meet and exceed the needs of our neighbors well into the new millennium.