CEO of Rockland Paramedic Services Retires after Illustrious Career

His decades of leadership helped to make Rockland County’s local emergency medicine sector one of the most innovative in New York State.

Rockland Mobile Care and Rockland Paramedic Services are announcing the retirement of founder and long-time CEO/Executive Director Ray Florida after more than three decades of service. Florida will continue to serve as a consultant to both agencies and act as a non-voting board member for both organizations. His successor is Tim Egan who has been with Rockland Paramedic Services (RPS) since its inception and worked alongside Florida even before the founding of RPS. The two have been working on the transition for more than a year to ensure a smooth shift in leadership.

Florida, who began his career in emergency medicine as a student in one of the first paramedic training programs at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the late 1970s, leaves behind a rich legacy. He worked as a paramedic and a captain, as well as a paramedic/EMT instructor, for New York City Emergency Medical Services in Manhattan for 13 years before coming to Rockland County, where he joined Good Samaritan Hospital as an EMS coordinator to launch a paramedic program for the Town of Ramapo. Eventually, Good Samaritan joined forces with Nyack Hospital as well as the local volunteer ambulance corps to form a nonprofit organization—Rockland Paramedic Services (RPS)—to run a single paramedic service for the entire county, with Florida at the helm. In 1998, Florida oversaw RPS’ launch of a wholly-owned subsidiary, Rockland Mobile Care (RMC), to offer better transportation services between healthcare facilities throughout the county. Today, RPS and RMC are the primary providers of advanced life support 911 response and emergency and non-emergency ambulance transportation in Rockland County.

Throughout his career, Florida built a reputation for his innovative approach, helping to spur RPS and RMC to many forward-thinking offerings including being the first to use cellular telemetry to transmit EKGs and launching a Home-Based Crisis Intervention Program as well as a Mobile Mental Health Crisis Team - Rockland’s Behavioral Health Response Team or BHRT—which was the first of its kind in the nation and has since become a template used by other municipalities to launch similar crisis units.

The two organizations have flourished under Florida’s leadership. Today, RMC maintains a fleet of 18 ambulances, employs a staff of 100-plus, and runs a 24-hour communications center which houses one of the most advanced computer-aided systems in the region, while RPS operates seven highly-equipped rapid response vehicles serving towns across Rockland County. Together, RPS and RMC both respond 24/7 to a combined call volume of more than 45,000 EMS calls per year.

As he settles into his retirement, Florida reflects with pride on his accomplishments in what has been a very fulfilling career. “What I'm most proud of is that the EMS system has progressed significantly, and we have been able to save thousands of lives of Rockland County residents,” he said. “It has been a 30-year collaborative effort between our organization and all of the town governments, communities, and ambulance corps. And, I have had the honor of working with wonderful staff who have dedicated their lives to help make many of these accomplishments happen.”

“I am grateful to Ray for all of the opportunities he afforded me throughout my career at Rockland Paramedic Services,” said Egan. “For more than three decades Ray and I have worked together to provide the best pre-hospital care to the residents of Rockland County. I am proud to assume the Executive Director/CEO role and to follow the example set by Ray over the years.”

Moving forward, Florida hopes to see local, state, and federal governments working together to help alleviate the immense amount of pressure that the country’s emergency health care system is under. The pandemic has put intense strain on the industry, and Florida would like to see additional funding for emergency medical programs as well as a greater focus on education and training for the next generation EMS/EMT workforce. “I’m hopeful that we can get to a point where EMTs and paramedics will make a better rate of pay and have more opportunity to advance themselves in the areas of emergency medical service,” he said.

Rockland Paramedic Services

Rockland Paramedic Services is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit Advanced Life Support Service operating in Rockland County. They are the advanced life support first response service that operates in conjunction with the local volunteer ambulance corps. Through the EMS 911 system, they respond with the volunteer ambulance corps to all medical emergencies. Rockland Paramedic Services has made a firm commitment to staff to be the best trained and qualified paramedics in the Hudson Valley. RPS has concentrated its efforts toward providing the latest state-of-the-art equipment and lifesaving medical techniques available. To find out more and learn about job opportunities, visit www.rocklandparamedics.org or call 845-627-8612 or send an email to info@rocklandparamedics.org.

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