Jeff Beckman, MD, Longtime EMS Leader, Named CarePoint Health’s EMS Medical Director
October 07, 2024
Jeff Beckman, MD, an award-winning Emergency Medical Services professional who has held EMS leadership positions at the state, regional, and local levels over his 20-year career in medicine, has been named CarePoint Health’s EMS Medical Director.
In his new role, Dr. Beckman will work to increase collaboration between EMS providers and doctors in the emergency room and hospital, develop site-specific EMS champions, and build partnerships with agencies transporting patients to CarePoint’s partner facilities.
In addition to his role as EMS Medical Director, Dr. Beckman practices as a CarePoint physician in the St. Vincent Health Emergency Room (Leadville, CO); HCA HealthONE Southwest ER, A Part of Swedish (Littleton, CO); and HCA HealthONE Northeast ER, A Part of Mountain Ridge Hospital (Thornton, CO). He also currently chairs the Denver Metro EMS Medical Directors physician group, which develops protocols and guidelines aimed at improving the standard of care.
Dr. Beckman had served since 2016 as EMS Medical Director for the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment, where he oversaw the state’s entire EMS and trauma system.
On May 3, 2024, at the request of Colorado Governor Jared Polis, a flag was flown over the state capitol for a day in honor of Dr. Beckman and his eight years of service as the state’s EMS leader. The flag and a certificate signed by the governor were presented to Dr. Beckman afterward. Only a select few Coloradans have been honored in this way.
A decade earlier, in 2014, Dr. Beckman was the recipient of another prestigious award: the Dr. Valentin E. Wohlauer Award for Physician Excellence, an Emergency Medical Services Association of Colorado-sponsored award presented to Colorado physicians who have made “substantial contributions to the advancement of EMS in Colorado.”
Dr. Beckman originally joined CarePoint in 2003 as an ER physician at Sky Ridge Medical Center (now HCA HealthONE Sky Ridge) and Swedish Medical Center (now HCA HealthONE Swedish).
A year later, Dr. Beckman joined the Emergency Medicine group at Lutheran and Good Samaritan hospitals, which served as the launching pad for his long and successful EMS career. He spent 16 years at Lutheran and Good Samaritan, serving as EMS Medical Director and the Trauma Service Liaison while overseeing more than 10 EMS agencies over the course of his career there. He ultimately returned home to CarePoint in 2020.
An Emory University School of Medicine graduate, Dr. Beckman did his Emergency Medicine residency at Denver Health. He completed his undergraduate studies in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Georgia and published research as a student.
Now at his primary practice location at St. Vincent — the highest-elevation emergency department in the country — Dr. Beckman is able to cultivate his interest in high-altitude medicine. In 2003 and 2008, he volunteered in Nepal in the Himalayas. A few years later, in 2014, he co-directed a high-altitude wilderness medicine course at the base camp of Aconcagua, Argentina.
