Hall Ambulance Service, Inc. celebrated its 47^th Anniversary by hosting its annual employee recognition awards on February 6 and 8, 2018.  The event recognized Company achievements during 2017 and celebrated its 450 employees with 62 awards being presented to employees across all divisions for their exemplary performance.

Founder and President Harvey L. Hall opened the ceremony by highlighting two significant milestones in the past year.  As the 9-1-1 paramedic provider for 88% of Kern County, California’s population, Hall Ambulance for the first time received over 100,000 requests for medical aid—resulting in its emergency medical dispatchers, paramedics, and EMTs touching the lives of 102,132 individuals.

Equally impressive, its’ Communication Center, which coordinates 100% of all ambulance requests in Kern County (Delano Ambulance, Hall Ambulance, and Liberty Ambulance), processed 115,637 requests for medical aid in 2017.

Exemplary Quality Surveys, Commendations/Compliments
In 2017, Hall Ambulance received 11,783 commendations which provide valuable feedback and enables the Company to measure the quality of care delivered by its employees.  Most Patient Compliments Submitted, Daniela Duran, Pre-Biller/Data Entry, 221; Most Exemplary Quality Surveys, EMT Yoong Chu, 66; Paramedic Field Supervisor Rod Castillo, 63; Paramedic Mas Seki, 60; EMT Nicholas Grady, 52; and, Paramedic Al Henninger, 52; Most Commendations/
Compliments, Paramedic Field Supervisor Diamond Horton, 37; EMT John Gibson, 31; EMT Savvas Chaffee, 28; Paramedic Mark Gonczar, 27; and, Paramedic Brian Klemecki, 26.

Employees of the Year
Paramedic of the Year: Eddie Maldonado
Paramedic Maldonado began his career with Hall Ambulance on June 2, 2010.  During his employment, he has worked in the Bakersfield, Lamont, and Wasco service areas.  In the past year, he functioned as a paramedic preceptor training several students from the Bakersfield College Paramedic Program.  Always leading by example, he worked 46 additional shifts in 2017 with just 2 sick calls.  He received nine compliments for providing exceptional patient care.

EMT of the Year: Katie Van Allen
EMT Van Allen started her career through the Hall EMT Academy.  She always displays a positive attitude and earning 21 compliments in 2017.  She has worked in the Metro, Shafter, and Frazier Park service areas, and worked 55 additional shifts with one sick call.

Field Supervisor of the Year: Steve Prater
Field Supervisor Prater is assigned to the East Kern operating areas covering Tehachapi, Mojave, California City, Rosamond, and Boron.  His interest in EMS started as a Medical Explorer while in high school, joining Hall Ambulance as an EMT, becoming a paramedic, and today is the senior paramedic field supervisor.

He volunteers his time maintaining Tech 1, the Company’s first ambulance, which he takes to vintage professional car events.

Relief Field Supervisor of the Year: Sam Swanson
Relief Supervisor Swanson is charged with the responsibility of training individuals to become emergency medical technicians as the lead instructor for the Hall EMT Academy.

Hall CCT Ground Employee of the Year: Val Cooke
Hall CCT RN Valerie Cooke was honored for her dedication to the CCT ground program working over 4,000 hours and assisted with trained several new nurses.  She started her nursing career in England and also worked in the Middle East before moving to the United States.

Hall CCT Air Employee of the Year: Jay Macabaugh
Lead Aircraft Mechanic Jay Macabaugh is an employee with our contracted partner for aircraft operations Air Methods.  In 2017, he worked diligently to decrease maintenance out of service hours by 8% over last year even though the air division experienced a 32% increase in the number of miles flown.

Emergency Medical Dispatcher of the Year: Kirk Chambers
EMD Kirk Chambers accepted additional responsibility as a trainer in 2017 while maintaining a 99% EMS Compliance.  He was the Dispatcher of the Month six out of twelve months last year.

Additional employees of the year include Ambulance Division Support Employee of the Year: Scott Walters; Field Training Officer of the Year: Anthony Saccullo; Business Office Employee of the Year: Mary Martinez; Maintenance Division Employee of the Year: April Warkentin; and, Hall Commercial Vehicle Service Employee of the Year: Jesus Duran, who was also recognized as Top Producer.

Hall Ambulance Stars of Life
Mr. Hall presented six paramedics and four EMTs with the Company’s Star of Life Award for their exemplary performance which contributed to lives saved.

Paramedics Shane Courtis, Elizabeth Winfield and EMT Natasha Downs responded to a man down.  During the paramedics’ assessment, the patient became unresponsive and stopped breathing.  The crew successfully revived the patient through CPR and defibrillation.

Paramedic Thomas Han and EMT Katie Van Allen responded to a chest pain call and determined the patient was having an acute heart attack.  With assistance from Kern County Firefighters, the paramedic crew began resuscitative measures including defibrillation.  The patient regained a pulse and consciousness before being flown by Hall MEDEVAC-1 to the hospital where he underwent a successful catheterization before being discharged home several days later.

Paramedic Ryan Strange and EMT Rachelle Knight responded to a man who had collapsed while mowing his lawn.  Upon arrival, Kern County Firefighters were performing CPR on the patient.  Paramedic Strange assumed care and together with EMT Knight, they worked seamlessly to initiate advanced life support care on-scene.  The patient was eventually discharged home from the hospital with a positive outcome.

Paramedic Diamond Horton and EMT Mike Hilliard responded to a chest pain call in Wasco.  Upon arrival, the paramedic completed a 12-Lead-EKG which revealed a STEMI.  As the crew arrived at the hospital, the patient went into cardiac arrest.  The ER physician started CPR while Paramedic Horton defibrillated the patient—successfully regaining a pulse.  It was determined the patient had full occlusion of the right coronary artery.  The patient was discharged home on her birthday, which was also Christmas Day.

Paramedic Tyler Kahler was enjoying a weekend with friends at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival when things changed in an instant.  Kahler’s actions that evening are commendable and worthy of recognition, yet his humbleness about his efforts and hesitation to share his story speaks to his character.  After ensuring his friends had safely returned to their hotel, Kahler declared he was going back.  With selfless bravery, he returned near the festival’s main entrance where he came across a large crowd of people with injuries.  Drawing on his professional EMS experience, he set up a triage area separating those with minor to critical injuries, and those who were fatally wounded.  Working alongside other off-duty EMS workers and members of the military they assisted 50-70 people before public safety arrived at their location.  One of the injured he encountered was off-duty Bakersfield Police Officer Aaron Mundhenke, who Kahler summoned an Uber driver to take him to the hospital.

After several hours, Kahler was escorted back to his hotel by an officer in tactical gear.  Thinking his role had come to an end, he was surprised to find another 15-20 individuals in the hotel lobby with various injuries including gunshot wounds.  He provided assistance before flagging down ambulance and fire department crews that were staging outside the hotel for assistance.

The following Saturday, Kahler returned to Las Vegas as part of the Hall Ambulance crew dedicated to bringing Officer Mundhenke home to Bakersfield.

Long-term Service Awards
14 employees were honored for their long-term employment anniversaries culminating in 180 years of service, including Hall CCT Paramedic John Wiley for 25 years of service and Mary Kenny, executive secretary to Mr. Hall for 35 years of service.

Perfect Attendance Awards
39 employees worked the entire year without a sick day, while 26 of those honored have achieved multiple years without a sick day. Paramedic Field Supervisor Mike Lopez who serves in the West Kern response area holds the distinction of working 11 years without a sick day.  Each was presented with the Iron Man or Iron Woman Award for Perfect Attendance.

The President’s Award for Customer Service
The President’s Award is presented annually to the EMT, Paramedic, or Registered Nurse who demonstrates dedication to outstanding service to the customers we serve.  The recipient is determined by taking the total number of positive Quality Surveys and compliments and dividing by the total number of transports.  This year’s recipient is Paramedic David Bentley, who is currently assigned to Post 16 in Golden Hills.

The Founder’s Award for Management Excellence
John Surface, vice president of corporate operations was honored with the Founder’s Award for Management Excellence.  Among his numerous accomplishments, Surface assisted greatly in the 911 Ambulance Provider’s Medi-Cal Alliance passing of SB 523 and the Ambulance Quality Assurance Fee increase.  He oversaw the procurement process for 30 new ambulances including critical care transport, four four-wheel-drive, and 25 transit van ambulances.  He worked extensively to get all 911 providers on the same patient care record system which is now one of the largest private/public data collection partnerships in the nation.

Additional awards presented

• Most Ambulance Responses by Admin- Paramedic Field Supervisor Celia Ames, 1041
• Most Life Saves Award- Paramedic Danielle Zarger, 3
• Excellence in Documentation- Paramedic Carrie Barnes
• Excellence in Documentation- EMT Adam Carrisoza
• Most Calls Completed- Paramedic Masato Seki, 1,292
• Most Calls Completed- Paramedic Field Supervisor Rod Castillo, 1,221
• Most Calls Completed- EMT Yoong Chu, 1,171
• Most Calls Completed- Paramedic Anthony Saccullo, 1,115
• Most Calls Completed- EMT Raul Soto, 1,031
• Most Calls Completed- Paramedic Christopher Burdick, 1,015
• Most Calls Completed- Paramedic Joshua Frazier, 1,014
• Most Extra Shifts Worked- EMT Bryan Newton, 129
• Most Extra Shifts Worked- EMT Lori Tomlin, 96
• Most Extra Shifts Worked- EMT Adam Moreno, 90
• Most Extra Shifts Worked- Paramedic Mark Gonzcar, 89
• Most Extra Shifts Worked- Paramedic Patrick Hoffpauir, 88
• Accounting Department Team of Excellence Award- Teresa Steiner and Mary Talbot
• Highest Number of Dispatched Calls- EMD Tim Wren, 8,035
• Highest Call Taking Volume- EMD Sylvia Ricks, 6,872
• Highest Compliments Received in Dispatch- Lead Dispatcher Tabitha Baker, 11
• Highest First In and Arriving with Statistics- EMD Ashley Lara, 70% All Zones
• Fastest Call Assign Time- EMD Carrie Certuche, 20.15 seconds
• Perfect EMD Scores 2017- EMD Carrie Certuche
• Perfect EMD Scores 2017- Lead Dispatcher Anthony Hernandez
• Perfect EMD Scores 2017- Lead Dispatcher Laura Swank