Sumter County Fire & Emergency Medical Services received Accredited Agency status with the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) for meeting the criteria established through the CFAI’s voluntary self-assessment and accreditation program. SCFEMS is one of more than 300 agencies to achieve Internationally Accredited Agency status with the CFAI and the Center for Public Safety Excellence Inc. (CPSE)
CFAI assists fire and emergency service agencies throughout the world in achieving excellence through self-assessment and accreditation to provide continuous quality improvement as well as the enhancement of service delivery to the communities. The CFAI process is voluntary and provides an agency with an improvement model to assess their service delivery and performance internally. It also works with a team of peers from other agencies to evaluate the completed self-assessment.
The continuous improvement process of maintaining accredited status is ongoing. Sumter County Fire and EMS completed the most recent self-assessment process in 2021 and hosted a peer assessment team in January 2022. This process of assessment, validation and verification culminated in a unanimous re-accreditation on March 22, 2022 at the CPSE Conference in Orlando.
SCFEMS Fire Chief Rob Hanson stated that the agency’s achievement of Accredited Agency status “demonstrates the commitment of the agency to provide the highest quality of service to our community.” Hanson added, “We have also been able to use the Commission on Fire Accreditation International’s process as a proactive mechanism to plan for the future of this agency and locate areas where we can improve the quality of services we provide.”
“The citizens of Sumter County are well served by our seasoned firefighters in Sumter County Fire and EMS,” said Commissioner Craig A. Estep. “Their professional performance, adaptability, and continued quest for improvement has led to this accreditation.”
Hanson said the accredited status is contingent upon continuous improvement as reported annually. “We will seek re-accreditation again in March of 2027. In the meantime, we will be working towards the completion of the specific and strategic recommendation included in the report, while continuously pursuing outcome improvement on behalf and for our citizens and visitors.”
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