DELMAR — A local resident earned the 2019 NAEMT/Bound Tree EMS Medical Director of the Year Award by the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians.
As part of its National EMS Awards, NAEMT recognized Michael Dailey, the Regional EMS Medical Director for the Regional Emergency Medical Organization (REMO) earlier this month. According to its website, REMO is a 3,500-square mile region including Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties which serves a population of over 860,000 people and answers 200,000 emergency medical calls every year.
Having been involved in EMS since 1983, Dailey holds numerous other positions throughout the Capital District, including being the medical director for the Town of Colonie EMS, the Duanesburg Volunteer Ambulance Corps, the City of Albany Fire and EMS, New York State Police and more.
“I work with a lot of medical directors in the state and around the country, and there’s a sort of small population of people who are very engaged in EMS. The people that I work with professionally are amazing individuals and are doing some great work and to be selected as the representative of that body of individuals this year is an incredible honor,” he said, adding that he received the news via a phone call. “It made my day stop and it was a surprise and it was a huge honor and I’m extremely thankful. It also really reflects my passion for EMS.”
Dailey will accept the award at the NAEMT’s General Membership Meeting on Oct. 15 in New Orleans, Louisiana as well in the EMS World Expo’s opening ceremony the day after. Dailey is among six other individuals from across the country to be recognized for their contributions to emergency response services; for more information regarding this, visit www.naemt.org/initiatives/national-ems-awards.
Dailey had been nominated by his colleagues Luke Duncan and Steven Kroll in June, both from the Delmar-Bethlehem EMS where the former serves as a co-medical director and the latter is its chief and executive director.
Duncan said, “I trained under Mike as a resident for the nine years I’ve been here and Mike is not just the director of REMO but he’s also at the Capital and lobbying for his EMS providers and he’s at the forefront of so many things. He’s a fantastic person to nominate for that because he’s involved in so many agencies too.”
Kroll chimed in, “We’ve all seen Dr. Dailey in the home of a patient who’s extremely ill and he’s sitting on the floor and talking to family members about what’s happening. So on a regular basis, he’s directly involved in helping individual people.” In their nomination letter, they added that Dailey recognized the importance of bystander CPR, the use of BLS naloxone to address the state’s opioid crisis, being a compassionate mentor to local EMS agencies, and more.
Dailey concluded, “EMS gives me an opportunity to work with people from different walks of life and everybody within this system is making a contribution to improving the lives of people in the Capital District. … To be recognized by my peers in EMS both at the physician level and EMTs means an incredible amount. It really is and it’s humbling. I can’t come up with a synonym for that.”
