By Suzanne Hoholik
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — National accreditation provides a sense of comfort — you know that a college or technical program meets certain standards.
It matters when you help your child pick a college, and soon it will matter to anyone who wants to train to become a paramedic in Ohio.
The state Emergency Medical Services board voted yesterday to require all Ohio paramedic programs to be nationally accredited.
Ohio has 53 paramedic programs. Five are accredited, and 14 are working on it.
Advocates say this change will improve patient care by ensuring that all paramedics meet national standards. It also will boost the reputation of the profession.
“Paramedics should be recognized as a profession,” said Vickie Graymire, a board member and trauma program manager at Grant Medical Center.
“The standards of education and training should be the same.”
Critics, however, say Ohio’s standards already are higher than national standards.
“If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” said William Mallory, a board member and a Madison Township firefighter.
In 2007, the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians, which tests EMS workers, told all states that by 2013, they’d test only paramedics from accredited programs.
“The national registry is not strong-arming people here,” said William E. Brown, executive director of the Columbus-based agency.
“EMS is the only allied medical group in the United States that does not require graduation from a nationally accredited school to be certified. The underlying goal of this is better patient care.”
Fifteen states require national accreditation for paramedic programs. The rest, except for Michigan, all are working toward the requirement, Brown said. Ohio has asked for a five-year extension to get programs certified.
Intermediate and basic emergency medical technician programs don’t have to be nationally accredited yet. Brown said it would be 2020 or later before that would be required.
The accreditation process can take six months to a year and cost about $2,000 per program, per year, Brown said. Other costs could include new training equipment and getting bachelor’s degrees for program coordinators, which isn’t required now.
Critics say these expenses would burden EMS agencies, especially in rural areas.
Tami Wires, an instructor with the Southeast Ohio EMS District, said her agency pays to train about 20 paramedics a year in Athens, Jackson and Lawrence counties. These new costs would be passed on to students.
“If we can’t train our own, we’re not going to get EMTs to come to southern Ohio,” Wires told the board Wednesday during a public hearing.
After the vote, the board created a committee to help paramedic programs such as Wires’ through the accreditation process and to help find funding to offset costs.
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