The Brandeis Emergency Medical Corps received a prestigious award in recognition for its achievements in providing medical care.The National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation, a group founded in 1993 to support campus emergency medical services around the country, issued the award to BEMCo at its annual conference February in Baltimore.

BEMCo received the award for its "quality in the delivery of patient care, high standards of professional education and service to the community" in its past three years of service, according to its press release.

"It's nice for people to recognize what we do," said Yoni Litwok '07, the organization's operations officer. "There are a lot of members that dedicate so much to BEMCo."

BEMCo administrators filled out an application, providing information such as medical protocols and call-answering service, in order to be eligible for the award, Litwok said.

BEMCo last won the award in 1999.

Debbie Bakes '07, BEMCo's director, said that since last winning the award, "We definitely have improved as an emergency medical services group, with the experience that we get from our calls, with better response time and the quality of care to our patients." She cited last year's update to a class five ambulance.

"We are a bigger part of campus," said Bakes of BEMCo's performance in the past several years. She said BEMCo's call volume has increased, as has participation in the EMT training class given during the spring semester.

NCEMSF is a non-profit organization of approximately 225 college EMS groups. At the organization's conference, EMS organizations participated in lectures on topics such as ambulance safety and management of medical emergencies.

Bakes described the conference as both a "learning and social experience." She said that the different EMS groups at the conference "could learn from each other."

Six hundred and thirty representatives from EMS services from 86 American and Canadian schools attended the event, which was co-hosted by the campus EMS services of John Hopkins University and University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

Other award recipients at the conference-which lasted from Feb. 23 through Feb. 25-included the campus EMS organizations of Binghamton University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, University of Pennsylvania and University of Windsor.