Northwest EMS History

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In the early seventies, Tomball Community Hospital provided ambulance service to the Tomball area with a nurse and a non-trained driver.  1978 saw the first EMS service in Tomball when Marvin Turner established Community Ambulance as an emergency transfer service for the area.  Due to business concerns, most of the community's units moved to Houston in 1980.  The hospital could not take on the ambulance service again, but they agreed the area obviously needed a service.

After much planning and work, and help from the citizens of Tomball, Rosehill, and Magnolia, Tomball Community Hospital, Northwest Rural Emergency Medical Services Association, Incorporated, was chartered in December of 1980.

Tomball Community Hospital assisted the new association with the purchase of an ambulance and supplies.  Staffing came from Tomball, Rosehill, and Magnolia residents, and the service was ready to begin operation in 1981.  Our first station was provided by the G.W. Brautigam family and, as a point of interest, our first station was originally a slaughter house.  After many hours of volunteer work the building was converted into an EMS station.  This included building a shower/restroom and a loft for sleeping quarters in the old slaughter room, a large kitchen and dining area in one of the other rooms, and the freezer area was converted into a day room.
 

February of 1981 gave us our first call.  We had an all volunteer service then, and it was quickly handled.  As the call volume began to grow, it became evident that we would need a full time dispatcher/receptionist.  It became more obvious as time went on that we would have to hire someone to do this job, as volunteers were not always available.  We were charging $50.00 a transport to pay for fuel, insurance, supplies, and all other necessities to run an ambulance service.  In early 1982, we hired a dispatcher who would double as a driver, (if needed), at $100.00 every two weeks.  Later in 1982, five members of the association cosigned on a bank note, and the association purchased a second unit.  We now had two units and we frequently needed them both.

In 1983, our standard procedure was to respond to a call with one volunteer on the ambulance and other volunteers would meet the ambulance on scene.  The City Secretary, one of our volunteers would often leave work and respond to the scene. The city decided we needed some financial aid to pay for daytime personnel and they worked out a method to provide funds for one day staff medic. The city agreed to pay $25.00 per person transported within city limits.  Also, Tomball P.D. would assume the dispatching duties.

In 1984, we moved to new quarters at Tomball Community Hospital and started paying a second certified person during the day. These employees were on a minimum salary, with no benefits, and we still utilized the volunteers at night and on weekends.  While the hospital and city supported us for years with supplies and financial aid, we are not a department of the hospital or the city.

1984 also saw the purchase of a new Type III ambulance.  We also had donated to us a Type I ambulance from Gold Star Ambulance Service which made it possible for us to retire the two original units.  In 1986, the hospital helped us purchase two more units, and in 1990, we remounted the 1984 box to a new cab and chassis.

 In 1992, we updated our billing structure, computerized the entire operation, and January 1, 1993, and opened the Northwest EMS Med Com Communications Center.

Since then, Northwest EMS has grown from 4 or 5 calls per week in 1993 to average of 18 calls per day in 2007.  Today we staff a full time communications division which dispatches not only NWEMS but Northwest Fire Department.  Staffing consists of 3 full time MICU units, a shift supervisor and full time office staff. The entire operation is now paperless with computers in each of our 5 ambulances and 2 supervisor vehicles.  We employee 24 full time field personnel, 4 office staff, and 4 certified EMD dispatchers.