Vista Medical Center East is an Illinois Department of Public Health designated Resource Hospital that has earned and maintains Joint Commission’s approval for accreditation as a Hospital.  The North Lake County EMS System through Vista Health System provides EMS education and emergency medical services to the surrounding communities and beyond.

Paramedic Program Goal

To prepare competent entry-level Paramedics in the cognitive (knowledge), psychomotor (skills), and affective (behavior) learning domains with or without exit points at the Advanced Emergency Medical Technician and/or Emergency Medical Technician, and/or Emergency Medical Responder levels.

Accreditation

The North Lake County EMS Paramedic course is affiliated with the College of Lake County.   The paramedic course includes instruction in the didactic, clinical, and field environments while meeting or exceeding the educational and competency standards of the current NHTSA Educational Guidelines.

Our Paramedic Program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (www.caahep.org) upon the recommendation of the Committee on Accreditation of Educational Programs for the Emergency Medical Services Professions (www.coaemsp.org).

Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs
9355 113th St. N, #7709
Seminole, FL 33775
727-210-2350
www.caahep.org

To contact CoAEMSP:

8301 Lakeview Parkway Suite 111-312
Rowlett, TX 75088
214-703-8445
FAX 214-703-8992
www.coaemsp.org

Contact

For additional information regarding the Paramedic program please contact either of the following: Paramedic Program Director John Lewis at (847) 360-2257 or [email protected]; Paramedic Program Lead Instructor David Chase at (847) 360-2205 or [email protected]

North Lake County EMS Paramedic Program Outcomes

CAAHEP Accredited Paramedic Programs and CoAEMSP Letter of Review (LoR) Programs track and report Retention, Written Exam and Positive Placement outcome measures annually.

Retention: Beginning with the 2020 CoAEMSP Annual Report, programs must calculate retention based upon the number of students enrolled after completing the first 10% of the Paramedic program’s advertised total clock hours and completing of all coursework including didactic, lab, clinical, field experience, and capstone field internship.   Retention is calculated by determining attrition (the number of students who do not complete course requirements for academic or personal reasons divided by the total number of students enrolled.  Once the attrition percentage has been determined, then the retention percentage is 100% minus the attrition percentage.

Written Exam:  Shows the percentage of graduates that attempted and successfully passed either the National Registry Paramedic Exam or the State’s Paramedic Certification exam within three attempts. Beginning April 1, 2020, the State of Illinois switched from a State administered Paramedic exam process to the National Registry exam process.

Positive Placement: Defined by the CoAEMSP as “Employed full or part-time in a related field and/or continuing his/her education and/or serving in the military”.  Positive placement is measured at completion of the program.

1. The 2019 graduating course was a lower enrollment than typical and for unknown reasons, potentially the start of Covid-19 pandemic, saw a greater number of students dropping for personal reasons prior to completing all course requirements. The course started as in-person and transitioned to Zoom learning due to social distancing requirements.

2. In April 2020, the State of Illinois switched from a State Certification exam to using the National Registry Exam process. Also, Covid-19 restrictions hampered the learning process for some students as well as created issues related to scheduling timely NREMT exams.

3. Many graduates do not maintain communication with the program after completing their written exam and therefore the program is not always aware of employment status. The Positive Placement percentage identified is based on graduates that remain local and continue to communicate with the program.