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Alumni Profile - Sister Catherine
Elizabeth Young, M.D., '85

By Camille Webb

Sister Catherine Elizabeth Young, M.D., ’85, has a new role as the first Medical Director for the Wichita-Sedgwick County EMS System in Kansas. In this position, she oversees the Wichita Fire Department, the Sedgwick County Fire Department, Sedgwick County 911 Center, and the Sedgwick County EMS (Emergency Medical Service). She is also a Benedictine sister in the Roman Catholic Church and recently took a few moments out of her busy day for a phone interview.

Q: How did the position come to be?
A: The city of Wichita and Sedgwick County had a consultant look at their EMS system, which consisted of the Wichita Fire Department and the Sedgwick County Fire Department, who are first responders, the 911 center, and the county EMS third service – the Sedgwick County EMS. The consultant said, ‘You have pieces but not one whole system. You need to put them all under one medical director.’ That’s what the city and county agreed to do. Before, each of the entities had their own medical director. I am the first medical director for the entire system.

Q: What are your responsibilities?
A: To provide medical direction to all the agencies. Part of my responsibility is to provide coordination and oversight for quality assurance and to provide training. We are doing that by standardizing all of the basic and advanced skill sets across the entire system because people got their initial training in different places. We’re collaborating with the Biostatistics Department at the University of Kansas Medical School in Wichita to review providers’ knowledge of skills immediately after training and again six months after training to assess skill retention. We’ve identified goals that are system focused. We’ve begun to address quality assurance from a system perspective. We’re looking at each service delivery from the time the dispatcher enters the call into our CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) system, all the way to the end of the service when the transport unit goes back into service. We’re also looking at service in terms of specific protocol adherence and quality of care given. I’ve been here just since November 1 (2004), but we’re doing a bunch of things!

Q: What qualifications did the position require?
A: They wanted someone who was either emergency medicine or critical care boarded or board eligible – I’m critical care board eligible. After graduating from the Medical School at UT-Houston, I did my residency in pediatrics at Hermann, and I did my critical care fellowship at Hermann also. They also wanted someone with EMS experience. I was named the medical director of the year for 2000 for the state of Texas.

Q: Do you have a daily routine or is it constantly changing?
A: It changes because it’s EMS. Yes, I may be at various meetings, but it’s not unusual for me to show up at a scene. On Friday nights, I try to ride out with my evening crews. During the day, if there’s a multi-vehicle wreck or something unusual going on, I may respond along with the medic supervisor. Sedgwick County is home to Wichita, the largest city in Kansas. Most people don’t realize that. Our call volume right now is approximately 42,000 calls a year – and it has been growing steadily.

Q: How does your position play a role in emergency response?
A: I’m responsible for everybody who responds to emergencies from an EMS capacity.

Q: As you know from the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, our nation’s emergency response to the crisis was extremely poor. Has that had an effect on your role or the departments you oversee?
A: From the first responder aspects of fire and EMS – yes. Sedgwick County, because of the number of tornadoes that come through here, has a very good disaster plan. The group that makes up our EOC (Emergency Operations Center) is a group of very seasoned people with a lot of experience. I think this community is probably one of the better-prepared communities. I would say that Wichita and Sedgwick County are quite well prepared for a disaster. For one thing, they have learned to deal with them because of the tornadoes.

Q: Along those lines, have you or the departments you oversee been required to participate in any additional training or education?
A: About 80 people from Wichita-Sedgwick County went to Anniston, Alabama, for a FEMA course where they put our EOC and MMRS (Metropolitan Medical Response System) through a weeklong drill and training. We were told that we ranked among the top four in the nation in preparedness.

Q: How did your Medical School training help prepare you for this career?
A: I think I trained at excellent places – UT Medical School and Hermann Hospital are top-notch institutions. As a medical student, I had an opportunity to be on the trauma team, and that was an invaluable experience. As a resident and fellow, I learned Pediatric Burn Care from Dr. Hugo Carvajal and Dr. Parks – that has been an invaluable learning experience. It’s not often you have an opportunity to learn from people who are experts in their field. When I finished my fellowship at Hermann, I went to the University of Oklahoma and did pediatric critical care there. I cared for the pediatric burn victims, who came into the unit, along with the pediatric surgery group.

Q: Do you have any fond memories from Medical School?
A: Dorothy Willis, who was in my class, and I would wander through the Houston Zoo after really bad tests. This was when the Houston Zoo still had free admission. The Freshman Retreat…Dr. Susan Denson with the Neonatology group…I know he’s not there anymore, but I spent time in Dr. Buscher’s lab as a fellow. That was a good research experience.

Q: Are you still active as a sister?
A: The monastery that I belong to is St. Scholastica, and it is in Boerne, Texas. Boerne is about 22 miles north of San Antonio, up in the Texas Hill Country. I’m currently on the council, which is an elected group that is an advisory to the prioress, so I’m back and forth periodically between Wichita and San Antonio.