The Lowcountry Regional
Emergency Medical Services Council, Inc., was created on February
10, 1976 as a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization by twelve counties
in the Lowcountry Region pursuant to § 44-7-2010, et seq., 1976
South Carolina Code of Laws and the Federal Emergency Medical
Services Act of 1973 to develop an emergency medical service in
the Lowcountry region which provides for the arrangement of personnel,
facility and equipment for the effective and coordinated delivery
of health care services.
The Council is governed by a Board of Directors
appointed by the governing bodies of the counties that make up
the Lowcountry Emergency Medical Service Region. Originally there
were thirteen counties in the region and a forty-nine member Board
of Directors.
On January 1, 1984, Aiken County was transferred
to the Midlands EMS Region and the size of the Board of Directors
has been reduced over the years. Currently, the Lowcountry EMS
Council serves twelve counties and has a twenty-nine member Board
of Directors. Each county appoints two representatives to the
Board and the Board of Directors selects five at-large members
from the community.
In 1977 the South Carolina Department of Health
and Environmental Control (DHEC), Division of EMS, initiated Emergency
Medical Technician-Paramedic training through the four South Carolina
Regional EMS Councils. DHEC Regulation Number 61-7 designates
the Regional EMS Councils in South Carolina as institutions for
Emergency Medical Technician-Intermediate and Emergency Medical
Technician-Paramedic training using the U.S. Department of Transportation/National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration Emergency Medical Technician-Intermediate
and Paramedic National Standard Curricula.
The Lowcountry
Regional EMS Council began its first EMT-Paramedic course on August
16, 1977 with twenty students. Since that initial course, the
Council has conducted more than fifty Paramedic courses and educated
well over1000 paramedics.
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