SCEMSA Hosts Inaugural Town Hall at Spartanburg Community College, Spotlighting EMS Workforce Solutions and Training Innovation

The South Carolina EMS Association held its first-ever town hall meeting on June 26 at Spartanburg Community College, bringing EMS professionals together for focused discussion on workforce development, educational partnerships and the future of emergency medical services in South Carolina.

The event, hosted in collaboration with Spartanburg EMS, offered attendees a networking lunch, sponsored by Public Consulting Group (PCG) and EMS|MC, SCEMSA leadership updates and a tour of the college’s new simulation ambulance, where EMS students train in realistic, hands-on scenarios.

For Rodney McAbee, operations manager for Spartanburg EMS and president of the South Carolina EMS Association, the town hall was a chance to show how local partnerships can drive statewide solutions.

“We wanted to showcase what’s possible when your county, hospital system and local community college work together,” McAbee said. “This partnership has stabilized our staffing. We came out of COVID struggling to staff ambulances every day, and now we’re in a much more sustainable position because of this relationship.”

Dr. Michael Mikota, president of Spartanburg Community College, welcomed attendees to campus and emphasized why the event matters not just for Spartanburg but for the future of EMS education statewide.

“We’re excited to showcase what we’re doing here and hopefully serve as a model for other communities across the state,” Mikota said. “We know how important EMS is to public health and we’re committed to training the highest-quality responders to meet that need.”

Mikota also highlighted the importance of hands-on learning in developing confident EMS professionals.

“We don’t want students just sitting behind screens. We want them experiencing these situations,” he said. “That’s why the simulation ambulance is so important. It puts them in real-world environments, where they learn by doing.”

Attendees toured the college’s simulation ambulance, a training tool designed to replicate ambulance conditions and patient care scenarios. Anthony King, paramedic instructor at Spartanburg Community College, said the tool gives students real-world experience in a controlled setting.

“Our students are immersed from day one,” King said. “They have to manage patient care, handle radio reports and make decisions without being guided step by step. It teaches them to think like EMS professionals before they ever enter the field.”

SCEMSA plans to host additional town hall sessions quarterly, rotating locations to engage EMS agencies statewide. Each session will share local innovations, provide statewide updates and encourage collaboration among EMS agencies, educators and healthcare partners.

These town halls are part of SCEMSA’s mission to bring resources and discussions directly to EMS agencies, helping providers share challenges, ask questions and connect without needing to travel across the state.

For more information about the EMS program at Spartanburg Community College, visit myscc.info/EMS.

Agencies interested in hosting a future SCEMSA town hall can contact Kelly Watson at kelly.watson@scemsa.org to learn more.