Here's the person to hire to manage the EMS department in DC

See "County boosts cardiac survival rate: Reason may be a new resuscitation method used by emergency crews," from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which discusses the efforts of Dr. Thomas Rea, medical director for King County Medic One. From the article:

Survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is at an all-time high in King County, and a new method of resuscitation used by emergency medical responders in King County may be the reason....

Nationally, resuscitation rates outside of a hospital are between 5 percent and 8 percent, making King County the gold standard for emergency response, and an area renowned for its care, said Dr. Stephen Anderson, chairman of emergency services at Auburn Regional Medical Center.

"This new protocol is a quantum leap forward to save more lives in a community that already saves more lives than anyone," he said. "Now, for every 100 calls you go on, 13 more people will live. I don't think anyone thought we would jump to nearly 50 percent." ...

Through a collaborative effort, county emergency medical services agencies integrated the changes into their regular training cycles, which included reprogramming defibrillators to support the new guidelines.
-------
Wow, research based development and adoption of best practices in a municipal agency that is truly world-class. Refreshing.

Imagine these sections from the King County website being on a local government website here:

-- A history of excellence -- how Medic One began and where we're going.
-- A photo gallery of Paramedics in Action, which includes this very interesting section:

King County paramedics respond only to life threatening illnesses or critical injuries. As a part of a tiered response system, medic units are dispatched based on the report received by the communications center. As an example a medic unit would not respond to a call for a broken arm in order to be available for a critical trauma patient like the one here that requires respiratory assistance. Learn more about the Tiered System

Index Keywords: health-care-planning