ROCKLAND — Maine is a leader in online database record-keeping for Emergency Management Services (EMS). Other states look toward this northeast corner of the country as an example of how it’s done. And within the Maine industry, a member of Northeast Mobile Health Services gets a lot of credit.

Paramedic Jon Powers, of Union, accepted this year’s Governor’s Award for exceptional contribution to the EMS, national or system-wide level, Wednesday, June 8, 2022, at Midcoast School of Technology. Governor Janet Mills presented the award personally during a day spent visiting business groups in Knox County.

Prior to online documentation, each EMS call would generate paperwork that described the nature of the call and how the employees handled the situation. They’d document location of the incident, vital signs, medications, where they took the patient, what type of transportation they used, and many other important or statistic-generating data.

Powers said that the very last person he witnessed using paper and pen to file a report pushed that paperwork through a fax machine and walked away.

“See, it’s already done,” the employee told Powers.

Except, paperwork can go astray. It can pile up. And, it is not easily accessible to everyone who might need the information. So, EMS began converting to computers.

Now in his 20th year, Powers began with EMS straight out of high school, bouncing back and forth between Information Technology and hands-on health care. For seven or eight years, he worked for the Maine EMS office as its second data preparedness coordinator. In that position, he started deploying online a statewide EMS run-reporting system, the licensing system, and the education system.

“That is such a big issue,” said Governor Mills. “Just being able to share patient information is so appropriate for emergency services.”

He may not have been the data preparedness coordinator from the beginning, but, “I was the data manager when they made it mandatory,” said Powers. “I made everybody switch to electronic.”

“It was a tough transition,” he said. “Yet, we continue to be the leaders of EMS daily. We have states that are looking to us and our systems.”

Powers even traveled to Kentucky to help set up a system for that state.

Aside from setting up the online documentation system, Powers has also helped changed policies within Northeast Mobile Health and assisted with COVID-19 vaccination clinics in the Lincolnville area.

Mills read aloud quotes that honor Powers as a Governor’s Award nominee:

-“Despite all of his responsibilities, Jon is the kind of leader who is always willing to jump on the ambulance to practice as a paramedic when staffing shortages challenge the system.

- “Jon pours his entire heart into making a difference, not only for the Rockport division of NEMHS, but EMS as a whole.

- “Jon loves all things EMS, whether it’s data-related and running numbers, learning about new equipment or improved techniques in patient care, jumping on a truck, sitting in a meeting brainstorming ideas for improvements, giving back to our community, finding ways to be involved, or just trying to come up with some team-building activities for our employees, Jon is there, eager to help, learn, teach and guide.”

Mills said that these characteristics exemplify the spirit of Maine and the kind of work ethic that residents appreciate.

For Maine EMS, as a whole, Maine Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck added the following:

“We’re constantly talking about how important EMS is in our state. How important first responders are for our state. And every day you step up to the plate….Director [Sam] Hurley is constantly talking about how proud he is of that system. That Northeast, being the biggest private ambulance service in the state, and the work that you do to support us, the work that the Board does. It’s a heavy lift….The work is steady and it’s hard. It’s a big lift, and you do it. You volunteer to do it. And you constantly step up to the plate.”