By Dr. Shana Nicholson and Scott Crouch
Maintaining strong leadership within Emergency Medical Services (EMS) has always been a challenge, particularly for agencies in rural areas that depended heavily on volunteers. Today those leadership challenges have shifted, as the need for continual care coverage rises and paid crews are increasingly necessary. As these paid EMS agencies have taken root around the country, volunteers have dramatically faded.
When an organization transitions to an all-paid staff, the financial burden is immense and, without strong leadership, an agency can bleed money like a patient in hemorrhagic shock. In addition, morale often plummets and the organizational structure can buckle.
Shifting to a Transformational Leadership Style
So how do you turn an agency around when it’s circling the financial drain? The answer is transformational leadership. When a new administrator takes over a financially challenged organization, an initial assessment of the agency’s personnel, apparatus, equipment, finances, and care protocols should take place.
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