NCH Physician Among First in U.S. to Receive EMS Board Certification
John M. Ortinau, MD, FACEP, the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Medical Director at Northwest Community Healthcare (NCH), is one of the first physicians in the country to be Board Certified in EMS by the American Board of Medical Specialties after passing the first certification exam for physicians in EMS.
EMS is defined as a medical subspecialty that encompasses pre-hospital emergency patient care, including initial patient stabilization, treatment, and transportation in ambulances or helicopters to hospitals.
Ortinau, who became EMS Medical Director at NCH in 1997, says the certification is humbling. "This new board certification recognizes a specialized knowledge, skill and experience needed to provide patient care in unique situations that occur outside the hospital," Ortinau says.
According to the American Board of Emergency Medicine, the certification process aims to standardize physician training and qualifications for EMS practice, improve patient safety, enhance the quality of emergency medical care provided to patients in the pre-hospital environment, and facilitate further integration of pre-hospital patient treatment into the continuum of patient care.
Certification in the subspecialty of EMS is achieved through an application process with the American Board of Medical Specialties, a minimum of 60 months of EMS practice of at least 400 hours per year, and a 300-question examination that covers the core content of EMS Physician practice. Physicians must renew board certification every ten years.
Achieving board certification in EMS demonstrates Dr. Ortinau's strong commitment to excellence in out-of-hospital care and the pivotal role he plays as EMS Medical Director of the Northwest Community Emergency Medical Services System (NWC EMS). The NWC EMS consists of 25 EMS agencies employing 1,300 emergency medical technicians and paramedics who provide care to citizens in the Northwest suburbs under Dr. Ortinau's leadership.
About Northwest Community Healthcare (NCH)
Serving Chicago's northwest suburbs since 1959, NCH is a comprehensive, patient-centered system of care that serves more than 350,000 outpatients each year and more than 20,000 inpatients treated annually at the 496-bed acute care hospital in Arlington Heights. The award-winning hospital holds the prestigious Magnet designation for nursing excellence, is designated as a Primary Stroke Center, earned the Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval in 2011, and was awarded the Leapfrog Group's designation as one of the nation's Top Hospitals based on quality and safety criteria. NCH has four Immediate Care locations in the northwest suburbs and operates a FastCare Clinic in Palatine. NCH has a medical staff of more than 1,000 physicians, which includes the board-certified primary care doctors and specialists of the NCH Medical Group. The physicians who provide care at NCH may not be agents or employees at Northwest Community Healthcare, or at any of our affiliate organizations. These physicians have selected our facility as a place where they want to treat and care for their private patients. For more information or to find a doctor on the NCH Medical staff, visit www.nch.org.
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