Powell Township EMS is a Basic Life Support transporting ambulance service. Our responders are volunteers who carry pagers and respond, as available, from calls from Marquette County Central Dispatch in Marquette. The majority of our crew are trained Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) at basic skill level, some at more advanced levels (Specialist and Paramedics). The EMT-Basic has successfully completed an approved EMT Course which is typically about 150 hours in length. EMTs are trained in the use of Automatic External Defibrillators (AED), CPR, oxygen administration, bandaging, splinting, emergency childbirth, non-visualized airways, and the administration of some medications including epinephrine with an Epi-Pen, aspirin, albuterol, and glucose.

In EMS (Emergency Medical Services), a basic life support group is the team required to identify emergency situations, give first aid, and transport a patient to the nearest hospital, if necessary. The EMT is given the task to give all the preliminary aids to the patient. If after the preliminary aid is given, more advanced medical help is required, the Advanced Life Support (ALS) team is requested to take over care. Upper Peninsula Health System provides the ALS for Powell Township. In certain calls, the UPHS ambulance is automatically dispatched to intercept with Powell EMS to provide more advanced medical help, including IV’s, intubation, and medications not authorized by the basic service. In many of those situations, the patient will ride in the Powell Twp. Ambulance from the scene, and the two ambulances will meet enroute to the hospital. The paramedic will then get on the Powell ambulance and take over care of the patient with assistance from the EMT’s.