COTS Welcomes New Board President
This past Tuesday, August 27th, the COTS welcomed their new board president, Tom Allenstein. He is currently President and CEO of MedFlight, not-for-profit, CAMTS-accredited air and ground critical care transportation company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, that completes over 6,500 patient transports each year.
How did you first get involved with COTS and what drew you to it?
I came to Columbus in the fall of 2004 and MedFlight’s Medical Director Howie Werman discussed with me about attending the pre-hospital meetings and becoming more involved with COTS as a way to learn more about the EMS system in Ohio.
When I took on the role as President of the Ohio Association of Critical Care Transport (OACCT) in 2007/2008, I saw the challenges we had as a group and wanted to share the amazing collaboration the group at COTS had back with the OACCT. This resulted in our first drafting of the Regional Air Medical Communications plan in 2010.
Along with my position on the Ohio Medical Transportation Board and eventually to the Ohio Board of Emergency, Medical, Fire, and Transportation services (EMFTS), I felt like we needed to bring all aspects of EMS and overall healthcare together and the only way to do that is by sitting at the table.
Why did you agree to take the position of president of the board?
I am one that likes to be involved. Gandhi stated, “Be the change you wish to see.” There is so much that COTS has to offer and the value to our communities is so great and I really wanted to be a bigger part of that.
I have been involved in chairing or leading groups such as OACCT and EMFTS and even at the national and international level with the Association of Air Medical Services (AAMS) and I wanted to see if I could bring those experiences to COTS and make this an even better organization tomorrow than it is today.
What do you hope to accomplish in this position?
My main focus will be to get the awareness out there of who COTS is and why we are such a great asset to the citizens, healthcare, and EMS agencies. I want others to be just as passionate about this organization as I am. I would love to see the participation of people attending meetings grow and also the buy-in from the community grow. I want to show that COTS can advance financially and be able to do all the great things we want to do.
So, what’s up with the hats?
Every time I have taken on a board commitment whether that is within a city, state, region, or nation, I have always tried to remind my fellow board members that we committed to those roles not for the betterment of our own personal or company goals but for the higher purpose that the board represents. This action was meant to really be symbolic of taking your own personal hats off and putting on the hat of belonging to COTS and that we need to move that agenda along and not any other agendas.
Learn more about COTS by visiting: COTShealth.org/home