About Us

Mission

To provide quality education built around the needs of the patients in the communities we serve through effective partnerships and evidence-based practices.

Vision

To be the preferred EMS education provider that develops a positive impact on the lives of students and their patients within communities nationwide.

Values

Quality
Integrity
Developing Professionals
Institutional Growth
Responsibility
Professionalism
Adaptability
Fully Invested

Our History

Beginning

The school began over 40 years ago as the East Texas Medical Center EMS clinical department in Tyler, TX. The program’s goal at that time was to educate paramedics for internal agency employment.

2011

The paramedic program obtained its CAAHEP accreditation and TC Howard became the Program Director.

2012

The program’s first cohort graduated under CAAHEP accreditation.

2013

SOE enrolled the first external students from outside agencies.

2014

SOE’s first graduate class was hired by external agencies.

2015

The program launched the first online paramedic program, with a “boot camp” style laboratory schedule. This was needed due to the large geographic area served by East Texas Medical Center (now UT Health), making regular class attendance difficult in a busy 911 service.

2016

SOE’s student body exploded to enroll students from over 15 agencies in Texas.

2017

The program acquired the School of EMS in Sioux Falls, SD from Avera McKennon, to help serve the school’s sister operation in the region. The ETMC EMS program adopted the name School of EMS, and became a separate corporate entity, The EMS Training School, LLC., as part of the greater PatientCare umbrella.

2018

SOE offered the first online paramedic class taught outside of Texas.

2019

The school’s first Florida campus opened and TC Howard became the COO of the institution and designated Dr. Robert Stanley, PhD as the first new program director in over a decade.

2020

The school embraced the hybrid learning model that had proven so successful, and in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic chose to discontinue all live-style classes and become 100% hybrid. The original Texas accreditation and South Dakota accreditation were allowed to merge, and the School of EMS became a single consortium with UT Health East Texas.

2021

Despite the nationwide shut down, SOE continued to thrive and provide education to hundreds of future EMS personnel. Over 15 alternate locations were added and the first Guam cohort launched.

2022

Dr. William Moore retired as medical director and then assistant medical director Dr. Alan Sazama became primary medical director for the program.

2023

The school launched its second major “rebuild” of the EMT and paramedic programs, changing from Brady to AAOS textbooks; and dropping FISDAP in favor of an internally-developed, proprietary system of documenting and tracking clinical progress. The rebuild also included revised versions of the successful “Studying about studying” series that teaches students test-taking strategies to combat anxiety and help them to get past the national registry exam after their course.

2024

SOE added a comprehensive progress reporting system as well as developed real-time dashboards available to both students and their employer sponsors to monitor their progress and ensure they are on track to complete successfully. The school also adapted its hybrid model to be able to function in extremely rural areas as well as urban centers. A dedicated department to securing and maintaining clinical affiliations, and a robust lab logistics department to coordinate shipping of equipment and flying qualified instructors to where the students are located was finalized.

2025

The program’s first west coast cohorts are projected to graduate.

The Future

Future School Of EMS plans to continue to expand its program to provide high-quality EMS education to students in over 21 states and internationally, including Guam and Bermuda.