AURORA | Aurora Fire Department EMS Bureau Manager Kevin Waters was awarded the 2015 EMS Executive of the Year award by the Emergency Medical Services Association of Colorado and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, on Nov. 7 in Keystone.
“Throughout our time together, I’ve never seen his courage waiver,” said Aurora Fire colleague Floyd Salazar in a news release. “I’ve never seen him shy away from a decision that could be perceived as unpopular when such a decision could improve our care. Kevin has never shirked the responsibility of his position and he has only ever exercised his authority to improve patient care.”
According to the release, Waters is credited with personally developing a new Swat Medic program; creating a new narcotic control policy, developing policies for local hospitals that created a “no‐divert zone;” and managing a Shots for Tots program of no‐cost or low‐cost lifesaving vaccines.
He has also created an analysis for critical review of all cardiac arrest resuscitations, an Aurora version of the Denver Metro EMS protocols, a new spinal stabilization protocol and a triage program to help patients in need of social services.
“As a leader, Mr. Waters defines the direction of the program as the continual pursuit of excellence,” said Dr. Maria Mandt of Children’s Hospital Colorado in the release. “His forward‐thinking approach includes an advanced understanding of the importance of evidence‐based practice, and these principles are skillfully introduced to his crews.”
According to the release, Waters instituted the first pediatric stroke protocol and the first pediatric apparent life‐threatening event protocol in the region. After recognizing the national complication rate in prehospital pediatric intubation practices, he moved the department paramedics to other devices for children, a direction the rest of the nation is now taking. He also wrote a comprehensive Pediatric field guide for medication dosing after mounting national evidence of severe prehospital pediatric drug errors.