To see Dallas Fire-Rescue, one of the largest systems in the country, take on the challenge of evolving traditional EMS services to a more flexible mobile healthcare platform is more proof that our industry is changing.
EMS1 readers who have been following the news have seen a rapid growth of articles related to the growth of community paramedicine. With increasing pressure from government and private insurers, the medical industry is finally making changes that will result in more cost-effective, yet better-performing, health care.
EMS will benefit from this change, so long as its leaders are proactive in creating opportunities and providers adopt the flexible mindset needed to accommodate the new roles. There are still many in our profession who don’t think we can make the change, or that we shouldn’t. I would have to disagree.
At this point it looks like success takes the form of expanding the role of the EMS provider, not the scope of practice. It requires EMS educators to integrate nonemergency principles and tactics into their curricula, so that new EMS grads have a wider mindset when they come into the job market. EMS agencies have to adapt, or in some cases, create infrastructure that places its employees into new roles with new outcomes that are measured differently from “traditional” EMS calls.
The trends in traditional 911 EMS service also point to changing times. Much of the focus has been on the reimbursement changes that have implemented, with more yet to come. There is even a greater pressure to consider — that of accountability.
Communities want better service from its public safety agencies. The cost of public pensions and benefits has dominated national and local headlines for the past several years, and there’s no sign that will change. The long recession has made average citizens reconsider what they get from their EMS, fire and law enforcement agencies. Public agencies need to wake up to the fact that they have to respond to the changing landscape and redefine what public safety means.
The time is now for us to embrace the evolution that is happening in EMS, not fight it or stick our heads in the sand. At the very least, get out of the way.
