The Cranberry Township EMS deserves a round of applause for receiving a statewide emergency medical services award this week.

Many of our state and county emergency medical services operations are understaffed and underfunded — and yet they do wonders with the resources they have. The Cranberry Township EMS is no different.

In the past 10 years, the number of emergency medical technicians in the state dropped from more than 34,000 to about 29,000, while the number of paramedics fell from about 12,000 to around 6,700, according to the state’s Department of Health.

EMS operations across Butler County have been forced to respond to the same number of calls with less funding and less staff over a period of years. So, it’s great to see Cranberry Township EMS excelling in such an environment, beating out more than 1,200 agencies throughout the state for the 2020 Pennsylvania Small EMS Agency of the Year award.

“Cranberry Township EMS truly epitomized what an EMS agency should be — a lot more than just taking people to the hospital,” said J.R. Henry, of the state’s Emergency Health Services Council, when he announced the award during a livestream this week.

This is something some people in the community might not know. Most of our local EMS operations do a lot more than just transport people to medical facilities.

For example, Cranberry Township EMS’s chief, Ted Fessides, said he believed one of the main reasons his group won the award was due to an event during which three cardiac arrest survivors were reunited with the responders who saved their lives.

The EMS trained nearly 400 people last year on how to perform CPR to do the same for others.

The EMS — which responded to more than 4,000 calls in 2019 — also performs car seat safety checks, teaches parents how to install car seats, holds Safe Landings visits for expectant parents and checks for childproofing in homes.

In other words, they do a lot — and are greatly valued by their community.

We’re also glad to see them getting some love from the Emergency Health Services Council. It’s well deserved.

— NCD