Statewide awards announced during annual meeting

ROME, Ga., March 27, 2024 – Atrium Health Floyd EMS was named the Georgia EMS Service of The Year during the Georgia Emergency Medical Services Association (GEMSA) awards held Tuesday night in Buford. It marked the fourth time Atrium Health Floyd has earned statewide the award.

Individual honorees for Atrium Health Floyd EMS include:

• Brittany Holcomb, emergency preparedness coordinator at Atrium Health Floyd, who won the Joe Lane Cox Excellence in EMS Award
• EMT Macey Eickleberry, who was named the Georgia Emergency Medical Technician of The Year

 "We strive to provide a team-driven, servant leadership culture within Atrium Health EMS," said Bud Owens, executive director of the service and Atrium Health's EMS leader for the Georgia market. “That focus has worked, and our teammates are the best in the industry. They constantly strive to serve our patients, families and communities with a focus on excellence in everything they do. That is why we are successful. They are truly an elite few and I am so proud of them."

Atrium Health Floyd EMS provides emergency ambulance and non-emergency transport services to residents throughout Floyd County, northwest Georgia and Cherokee County in Alabama. It is the designated 911 responder for the majority of Floyd County and all of Chattooga County and Cherokee County, Alabama.

“With over 180 teammates consisting of Paramedics, EMTs, telecommunicators, mechanics, support staff and leadership, the bottom-up leadership culture of the organization is recognized across multiple states," the GEMSA news release stated. “Over 600 hours of community service and community benefit have been logged during 2023 by teammates who have graciously served the northwest Georgia and northeast Alabama communities through health fairs, educational programs, event coverage, support of athletic events and programs to benefit the health of communities served.

The Joe Lane Cox Excellence in EMS Award recognizes a worthy individual who is not employed in EMS but donates their time and efforts to continue the improvement of EMS on the local, state and national levels.

In her role as emergency preparedness coordinator, Holcomb “is constantly going out of her way to include EMS in every aspect of her job and to any benefit of the community," according to the GEMSA news release. “Her main goal is to have the community comfortable with EMS and to educate the public on the capabilities of an EMS service."

Eickleberry received the Georgia Emergency Medical Technician of The Year for her skill, knowledge and dedication to her teammates and her community.

“She is an advanced EMT who serves in a dual role with capabilities of running her own AEMT truck and is confident enough to support any need her paramedic partner may need," according to the news release.

She often buys groceries and other items to help someone less fortunate. She has also been known to cook a meal for a patient in need.

“The amount of kindness and compassion she shows to all she meets is a testament to her servant leadership qualities," the news release stated.

Atrium Health Floyd EMS held the most nominations statewide and was recognized with placement in the top three in 12 of the 13 award categories.

Other Atrium Health EMS nominees were Dr. Kevin Hardwell, Greg Goedert, Ben Fleming, Amber Eason, Cristy Harris, Megan Dozier, Darby Hopper, Daniel Herring, Dusty Johnson, Robby Hill and Don Taylor. 

The statewide awards come after Atrium Health Floyd EMS also earned recognition on the regional level.

Paramedic Dusty Johnson was named the Danny Hall Memorial Paramedic of the Year by Northwest Georgia Region 1 EMS.

Johnson has been a teammate at Atrium Health Floyd since 2018 and serves as both a responder and an instructor for EMS.

“Dusty has invested himself in the people he works with and those whom he treats. Being a great paramedic is more than performing emergency medicine on a scene. It is also about helping others reach the same high standard," a nomination letter for Johnson stated.

Amber Eason and Ben Fleming earned the Richard Gray M.D. Excellence in Trauma award. Gray was the trauma surgeon at Floyd Medical Center when it became Georgia's first designated trauma center in 1981.

They were honored for their response to an incident when a woman was seriously injured after possibly being hit by a train on June 17, 2023.

“The patient's survival was due to the care and work of Amber, Ben and the Rome-Floyd Fire Department," according to the nomination letter.

Atrium Health Floyd EMS teammates were also recognized last year as Hospital Heroes by the Georgia Hospital Association for their response to a tragic wreck in Chattooga County in October 2022.

About Atrium Health Floyd
The Atrium Health Floyd family of health care services is a leading medical provider and economic force in northwest Georgia and northeast Alabama. Atrium Health Floyd is part of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Advocate Health, the third-largest nonprofit health system in the United States, created from the combination of Atrium Health and Advocate Aurora Health. Atrium Health Floyd employs more than 3,500 teammates who provide care in over 40 medical specialties at three hospitals: Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center – a 304-bed full-service, acute care hospital and regional referral center in Rome, Georgia; Atrium Health Floyd Polk Medical Center in Cedartown, Georgia; and Atrium Health Floyd Cherokee Medical Center in Centre, Alabama; as well as Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center Behavioral Health – a freestanding 53-bed behavioral health facility in Rome – and also primary care and urgent care network locations throughout northwest Georgia and northeast Alabama. Atrium Health Floyd also operates a stand-alone emergency department in Chattooga County, the first such facility to be built from the ground-up in Georgia.

About Advocate Health 
Advocate Health is the third-largest nonprofit integrated health system in the United States – created from the combination of Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health. Providing care under the names Advocate Health Care in Illinois, Atrium Health in the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama, and Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin, Advocate Health is a national leader in clinical innovation, health outcomes, consumer experience and value-based care, with Wake Forest University School of Medicine serving as the academic core of the enterprise. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Advocate Health serves nearly 6 million patients and is engaged in hundreds of clinical trials and research studies. It is nationally recognized for its expertise in cardiology, neurosciences, oncology, pediatrics and rehabilitation, as well as organ transplants, burn treatments and specialized musculoskeletal programs. Advocate Health employs nearly 155,000 team members across 68 hospitals and over 1,000 care locations and offers one of the nation's largest graduate medical education programs with over 2,000 residents and fellows across more than 200 programs. Committed to equitable care for all, Advocate Health provides nearly $6 billion in annual community benefits.