RICHARD A. SERINO (Click for bio)

Welcome to the Boston Emergency Medical Services web site.  We are your municipal public health and public safety service that provides and manages the integrated pre-hospital care system for the City of Boston.  We can trace our roots back to 1892 when the department was known as the Boston City Hospital Ambulance Service.  Today we deploy a state-of-the-art fleet and employ more than 300 Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and Paramedics who serve the City of Boston 24 hours a day, 365 days per year.  The strength of our service is our personnel’s commitment to excellence.  Highly trained and dedicated, Boston EMS Paramedics and EMTs answer an average of 100,000 medical emergency  9-1-1 calls for help each year, and transport as many as 67,000 people to area hospitals in their time of need.

Despite our name, emergency response is not our only focus.  In an ever-changing world, Boston EMS is at the forefront of emergency preparedness and homeland security efforts.  Through our DelValle Institute of Emergency Preparedness, we offer expanded and continuing education for EMS (including municipal, fire-based, and private services), Public Health (local and state), community center, health center, hospital, and Police personnel throughout Metro Boston.  Boston EMS also manages aspects of the City’s Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) and coordinates the Boston Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS).  Our personnel regularly participate in drills with local, regional, state and federal partners.  This cooperative work with our public health and public safety partners has helped to earn high praises for the City of Boston and its Emergency Preparedness efforts. 

As part of the Boston Public Health Commission, we also provide community education opportunities to help keep kids, families and neighborhoods safe.   We attend community events and meetings to bring programs to residents on the “Kids Can’t Fly” program, bicycle safety education, domestic violence prevention and the File of Life program for elders.  Our staff works with youth involved in gangs or drugs, who have been in the court system, to teach them to save a life in hopes that they will make better decisions for their own future, and someone else’s.  Our community programs include EMT courses and CPR/AED training.  Boston EMS also provides medical support and coordination during the City’s major events, such as First Night, the Boston Marathon and Boston’s Fourth of July celebration.  But most importantly, we are here to respond to your 9-1-1 calls for help.  Each and every day, we carry out our mission, serving at the intersection of public health and public safety. 

 If you would like more information on Boston EMS than you find in these pages, please call my office at:

617-343-BEMS (617-343-2367).  We’re here to help.

 Sincerely, 

Richard Serino, EMT-P
Assistant Director, Boston Public Health Commission
Chief of Department, Boston EMS