Elite Medical Specialists, LLC

Florida emergency medical services medical direction

Physician oversight for the systems people call on their worst day.

Elite Medical Specialists provides board certified emergency medicine and emergency medical services physicians to fire rescue agencies across Florida. For more than twenty-five years we have written the protocols, credentialed the paramedics, answered the radio at three in the morning, and published the research that changed how prehospital care is delivered nationally.

Discuss medical direction See the research
1.4Million Floridians covered
11Agencies served
25+Years in practice
100%Board certified physicians

The company

Medical direction is a clinical practice, not a signature on a protocol.

Elite Medical Specialists, LLC is a Florida company founded and led by Kenneth A. Scheppke, MD, FAEMS. We contract with municipal, county, and special district fire rescue agencies to serve as their medical director of record and to carry the full weight of that role: clinical authority, regulatory accountability, and daily presence in the field.

Every physician on our roster is board certified, carries active agency assignments, and is contractually required to ride with crews on a recurring schedule. Our physicians are reachable around the clock on a dedicated online medical control line, and the same physicians who write the protocol are the ones a paramedic reaches when a patient is deteriorating in the back of the truck.

The result is a system that agencies can defend in front of a commission, a medical examiner, or a plaintiff's attorney, and that crews trust because the doctor's voice on the phone is one they know.

Protocol development

Evidence based treatment protocols and standing orders written, reviewed, and revised on a defined cycle, aligned to current national guidelines and Florida rule.

Quality assurance and review

Structured chart review, high risk case audit, cardiac arrest and airway performance tracking, and remediation plans built with the agency's training division.

Online medical control

A staffed physician line available every hour of the year, routed across the roster so a crew in the field always reaches a credentialed medical director.

Credentialing and education

Paramedic active status testing, skills verification, new hire clearance, continuing education, and case based teaching delivered in the station.

Regulatory and controlled substances

Licensure support, controlled substance registration and accountability, state reporting obligations, and readiness for inspection or audit.

Program innovation

Whole blood transfusion programs, pediatric resuscitation systems, stroke and cardiac triage networks, telehealth diversion, and treatment programs for opioid use disorder.

Agencies served

More than 1.4 million Florida residents, plus the visitors who fill our coast each winter.

Our physicians hold medical director or associate medical director appointments across county, municipal, special district, and institutional agencies from the Palm Beach County beaches to the Treasure Coast. Together those systems answer well over two hundred thousand calls for service each year.

Residents counted below are approximate resident populations within each jurisdiction. Seasonal population, commuters, and visitors are not included, and Palm Beach County Fire Rescue dispatches for an additional population beyond its own jurisdiction.

AgencyTypePopulation served
Palm Beach County Fire RescueCounty976,900
Indian River CountyCounty173,000
City of West Palm BeachMunicipal120,000
City of Boynton BeachMunicipal81,000
City of Palm Beach GardensMunicipal60,000
City of GreenacresMunicipal45,000
City of Stuart Fire RescueMunicipal17,400
Town of Palm BeachMunicipal9,300
Palm Beach County Ocean RescueCountyCountywide beaches
Health Care District of Palm Beach CountySpecial districtCountywide
Palm Beach State CollegeInstitutional40,000 students

The principal agency contracts are listed above. Individual physicians in the group hold further medical director appointments elsewhere in Florida. Population figures are drawn from agency fact sheets and current census estimates.

Research

Practice that produces evidence, and evidence that changes practice.

Our physicians do not simply adopt published guidelines. They generate the data that guidelines are built from. Work led or co-authored by this group has helped establish whole blood transfusion before hospital arrival, prehospital recognition and antibiotic treatment of sepsis, ketamine for the violent or seizing patient, and regional stroke systems that shorten time to treatment.

Agencies we serve become part of that work, with their outcomes measured, published, and cited internationally.

Blood and trauma

Sepsis

Seizure and sedation

Cardiac arrest and defibrillation

Stroke systems of care

Pediatric resuscitation

Other clinical research

Each title links to its record in the National Library of Medicine database, where the abstract and full citation are free to read. This is a selection. A complete publication list, including conference abstracts and work in press, is available on request.

Education and speaking

Our physicians teach this work nationally and internationally.

Members of the group lecture regularly at the largest gatherings in emergency medical services, including the US and International Metropolitan EMS Medical Directors Association, the National Association of EMS Physicians and EMS World EXPO meetings, as well as state and regional conferences. Topics are drawn from systems our own agencies run, which means the audience hears what actually happened rather than what should work in theory.

We also provide in-service teaching, grand rounds, and agency leadership briefings on request.

Prehospital whole blood transfusion Building a statewide blood product program Public access defibrillation programs Cardiac arrest systems of care Pediatric resuscitation systems Ketamine for status epilepticus Sedation of the violent or agitated patient Regional stroke triage networks Prehospital sepsis and early antibiotics Medication assisted treatment for opioid use disorder Telehealth and alternative destination programs Mass casualty and active threat response Long COVID and monoclonal antibody therapy Building a defensible quality assurance program
US and International Metropolitan EMS Medical Directors AssociationKnown as The Eagles. Its annual State of the Science conference, the Gathering of Eagles
National Association of EMS PhysiciansAnnual meeting and scientific assembly
EMS World EXPONational educational conference and exposition
Florida state and regional conferencesClinical and medical director programming statewide

The physicians

Board certified, field present, and accountable to the agencies they serve.

Each physician holds named agency assignments, shares the around-the-clock medical control line, and is contractually obligated to recurring ride time with crews. Assignments are documented and tracked, and every physician is credentialed and insured through the company.

KS Kenneth A. Scheppke, MD

Kenneth A. Scheppke, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Dual board certified in emergency medicine and emergency medical services, Dr. Scheppke founded the company and has directed fire rescue systems in South Florida for more than twenty-five years. He serves as State Chief Medical Officer for the Florida Department of Health and previously served as Deputy Secretary for Health and as Florida State Emergency Medical Services Medical Director.

He is a member of the US and International Metropolitan EMS Medical Directors Association, known as The Eagles. He is a widely cited investigator in cardiac arrest, prehospital ketamine, stroke triage, and treatment of opioid use disorder, and a recipient of the Journal of Emergency Medical Services innovator award. He is an instrument rated pilot and volunteers flying animal rescue missions.

Emergency medicineEmergency medical servicesState leadership
PA Peter Antevy, MD

Peter Antevy, MD

Medical Director, Pediatrics

Board certified in pediatrics, pediatric emergency medicine, and emergency medical services, Dr. Antevy practices at a level one pediatric trauma center and has directed South Florida fire rescue agencies since 2010. He is the founder and chief medical officer of a pediatric emergency standards company whose dosing system is used nationally.

He has been named national medical director of the year, received the Raymond H. Alexander Emergency Medical Services Medical Director of the Year award, and serves as the pediatric specialist to the US and International Metropolitan EMS Medical Directors Association.

Pediatric emergency medicinePediatric resuscitation
PP Paul Pepe, MD, MPH

Paul Pepe, MD, MPH

Medical Director, Research and Education

Dr. Pepe is the creator and program director of the Gathering of Eagles conference and global coordinator of the US and International Metropolitan EMS Medical Directors Association, which represents the medical decision makers for the largest cities in the United States, Europe, and beyond.

He held tenured professorships and the Riggs Family Chair in Emergency Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, has published more than four hundred scientific papers, and contributed to the original Chain of Survival concept.

Resuscitation scienceCritical careSystems of care
DF David Farcy, MD

David Farcy, MD

Associate Medical Director, Research and Education

Board certified in emergency medicine with fellowship training in shock trauma critical care, Dr. Farcy chairs the Department of Emergency Medicine and directs emergency medicine critical care at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach. He is a professor and vice chair of research at the Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine.

He is a past president of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine and a co-investigator on the group's whole blood, sepsis, and status epilepticus studies.

Emergency medicineCritical careTrauma resuscitation
TZ Tony Zitek, MD

Tony Zitek, MD

Director of Research

Dr. Zitek is an emergency physician and clinical researcher who leads the design, analysis, and publication of the group's prehospital studies. He is first author on the group's work in prehospital sepsis recognition and antibiotic timing, rapid crystalloid infusion, out-of-hospital whole blood transfusion, status epilepticus, and pediatric intraosseous access.

His work appears in Annals of Emergency Medicine, Prehospital Emergency Care, and Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, and it turns the day-to-day care our agencies deliver into evidence other systems can act on.

Emergency medicineClinical researchOutcomes analysis
SK Steven Keehn, DO

Steven Keehn, DO

Medical Director, Palm Beach County Ocean Rescue

Dr. Keehn directs medical care for Palm Beach County Ocean Rescue and serves as associate medical director for West Palm Beach Fire Rescue and Town of Palm Beach Fire Rescue, covering both the county's beaches and two of its busiest coastal municipal systems.

Ocean rescueWest Palm BeachTown of Palm Beach
RG Rich Giroux, DO

Rich Giroux, DO

Medical Director, Stuart Fire Rescue

Dr. Giroux directs Stuart Fire Rescue on the Treasure Coast and serves as associate medical director for Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue and Boynton Beach Fire Rescue. He is a co-investigator on the group's prehospital whole blood transfusion program and its published early results.

StuartPalm Beach GardensWhole blood program
AB Adam Bromberg, MD

Adam Bromberg, MD

Associate Medical Director, Greenacres Fire Rescue

Greenacres
AL Adam Leisy, MD

Adam Leisy, MD

Associate Medical Director, Boynton Beach Fire Rescue

Dr. Leisy also serves as associate medical director for Town of Palm Beach Fire Rescue.

Boynton BeachTown of Palm Beach
F Dr. Ferraro

Dr. Ferraro

Associate Medical Director, Indian River County

Indian River County
P Dr. Parmar

Dr. Parmar

Associate Medical Director

Palm Beach County

Contact

Talk to us about medical direction for your agency.

Whether you are issuing a solicitation, replacing a departing medical director, or building a new clinical program, we will tell you candidly what the role requires and what we would bring to it.

  • Emailinfo@elitemedical.net
  • Service areaPalm Beach County, the Treasure Coast, and statewide Florida
  • Medical directorsYour personal ride time and duty scheduling link is sent to you by email