LMC students who were a part of the Emergency Medical Technician training program between the years 2019 and 2023 were notified by Contra Costa Health Oct. 22, that they had never been eligible to receive the California EMT certificate they had been awarded.
EMT Director Anthony Blakely said more than 200 LMC students were impacted by the situation.
The cause of the issue, according to a letter to impacted students from Marshall Bennett, EMS Director of Contra Costa Health, is that LMC has been “unable to provide evidence that it had conducted periodic skills testing, or that the final skills testing was conducted.”
LMC President Pamela Ralston said there was an error in filing the appropriate paperwork, but was unable to elaborate.
“This is a personnel matter involving former employees, and as a result, we are required to keep the information confidential,” she said.
Blakely, who took over after former EMT director Paul Cutino retired, put measures in place to improve the program that was recently revived following its suspension starting Nov. 13, 2023 to the beginning of the current fall semester.
Blakley emphasized that there is now more mandated testing and explained, “We’ve created other filing systems to make sure that we keep accurate records of everything that we’re doing.”
The program is working to prevent this situation from occurring again to current students.
Ralston said she was unaware whether the current EMT students know of the situation, and that the county had helped with managing the communications to those impacted, so the college complied with their suggestions.
Blakely, however, confirmed that current EMT students are aware that the program had gone through this previously.
Although past students were notified of the status of their certification in October of this year, the college has been aware of the issue since August 2023.
Ralston attributes the delay in reaching out to students to county supervision.
“We have complied with County direction regarding student notification and appropriate corrective steps,” she said.
In response to the situation, LMC has offered free training courses to the impacted students in which they will be able to complete training and retake their tests.
Students have until March 31, 2025 to complete the exam, or they can voluntarily surrender their certificates. Blakely, who has monitored the skills testing, said about 25 to 30 students have completed the examinations so far, all of them successfully passing.
Bennett explained the testing problem goes beyond the college and even state level.
There is “an issue at the national level with the National Registry of EMTs, because they all had to get certified through that entity before they could get reciprocity in the state of California and be issued a certificate.”
Bennett had nothing but praise for Blakely and his takeover of the program explaining that he has been working hard to change the dysfunctional program he inherited.
“He’s been trying to get everything back and gain an understanding of regulation and how to apply it to a training program,” Bennet said.
