San Mateo County Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Services Group  (JPA)

The name is a mouthful, but what it means is faster medical care on-scene than ever before.

Foster City participates with all other Fire Agencies in San Mateo County to provide "first responder" medical care by staffing every fire engine in the County with at least one firefighter/paramedic daily.  This means that there is a fully certified paramedic responding to every medical call as soon as the fire engine pulls up to the door.

In order to effectively provide this level of care, all fire agencies in San Mateo County are dispatched from the same dispatch center.  This allows dispatchers to send the closest engine to the emergency call, regardless of the jurisdiction in which the call was placed. 

The JPA operates as a subcontractor of the private ambulance company.  The private ambulance continues to provide transportation of victims to local hospitals.

This innovative partnership between San Mateo County fire agencies, County Emergency Medical Services, the private ambulance provider (AMR West) and Public Safety Communications to provide comprehensive first-responder medical treatment has has won several state, national and international awards for excellence.  Be sure to visit our "Awards Cabinet" to learn more about these prestigious awards.