Hobart and William Smith Colleges Emergency Medical Services

Organized in 2005, and operating since August 2008, the Hobart & William Smith (Colleges) Emergency Medical Service (HWS EMS) has been committed to providing a professional and rapid first response emergency medical service to the community of Hobart & William Smith Colleges, in Geneva, New York. Our service is founded with a commitment of compassion, professionalism and service to not only the HWS Colleges but also the greater Geneva community. We are a BLS FRS (Basic Life Support First Response Service) meaning our response time’s average around a minute or two, but we do not transport. We are dispatched by Campus Safety and do only respond to calls on campus. HWS EMS has its own first response vehicle that we use to respond when dispatched.  We have had calls in which we were on scene for roughly 20-30 minutes before the local ambulance arrived, but normally we are on our own for only 7-15 minutes.   During the academic year, we are available to respond seven days a week, and 24 hours a day to all emergency medical calls on campus as well as perform standby coverage as requested.  Currently, our roster consists of about fifteen members, though we are looking to increase that number to around 25. We take responsibility to train and educate all our members in our methods and procedures. All our members certified New York State Emergency Medical Technicians. Our service is an entirely volunteer and student-run organization.