¶ … EMS Bill is primarily designed to modernize and transform the current Emergency Medical Services System. One of the cornerstones of the bill is improved integration of services, to provide better coordination of service delivery. Currently, the EMS system is fragmented with several disparate federal, state, and local entities participating in EMS service. Resulting tensions and miscommunications are not only costly, but can also create medical errors. However, the proposed Field EMS Bill is far from perfect, and has far from universal support. One of the main EMS stakeholders, the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) has expressed concern about the way the bill is currently worded. In short, the Field EMS Bill is worded in ambiguous language that promotes core concepts like "value" over ethics and quality of care. Cost reduction seems to be a primary focus on the Field EMS Bill, rather than ensuring that first responders have access to the tools they need.
The IAFC (2014) lists three main concerns with the Field EMS Bill, including its provision for grants to private EMS entities, with "lenient eligibility requirements." Moreover, the Field EMS Bill systematically disempowers federal EMS entities and participants in
Yet as the IAFC (2014) points out, cutting down on the number of federal agencies in charge of EMS services only looks good on paper. In reality, services are complex and squeezing them into an artificially tight chain of command might reduce overall quality of care. The most notable challenges associated with passing this bill are its lack of support among publically funded entities that remain, and will continue to remain, crucial to EMS. Furthermore, EMS cannot ethically be diverted to the private sector in such obvious ways.
2. Community paramedicine revolutionizes EMS by expanding the role of paramedics and widening the scope of their resources. Rather than focusing on transportation as a primary service, community paramedicine provides primary care delivery to underserved communities and also diverts some emergency care from overburdened local healthcare facilities. One of the goals of community paramedicine is to use existing emergency care resources more efficiently, diverting non-emergency cases to appropriate venues immediately (Kizer, Shore & Moulin, 2013). Another goal of community paramedicine is to increase and improve follow-up services to prevent unnecessary hospital readmissions, and a third goal of community paramedicine is professional development (Kizer, Shore & Moulin,…
