Updated June 2015
To create a stronger “brand identity” for prehospital providers in Canada, the Emergency Medical Services Chiefs of Canada (EMSCC) is renaming itself the Paramedic Chiefs of Canada.
In Canada, all three levels of prehospital provider include paramedic in the title: primary care paramedic, advanced care paramedic and critical care paramedic, explains Michael Nolan, former president of the Paramedic Chiefs of Canada. Surveys by the organization found that many members of the public were confused about the meaning of the EMS acronym, with some thinking it meant emergency management, emergency medicine in hospitals or environmental management services. “When I would say I was the president of the EMS Chiefs of Canada, they would say ‘huh?’ Or in Canada, they would say, ‘eh?’ It’s not understood,” Nolan says. “It’s not common, and it’s not plain language. An acronym shouldn’t be used for public branding and public identity.”
Likewise, even when spelled out, the term “emergency” doesn’t encompass all that paramedics do today, and will likely do even more of as the role of paramedic evolves. “EMS doesn’t reflect the breadth of the profession,” he adds.
After two years of discussion, in June 2012, the EMSCC Board of Directors unanimously approved the change; the general membership voted to approve the change shortly thereafter. Says Nolan: “‘Paramedic Chiefs of Canada’ is plain language. It’s a clearly articulated responsibility in the community, attached to the No. 1 trusted profession.” (In Australia, a 2012 Reader’s Digest poll named paramedics and firefighters the most trusted people.)
EMSCC isn’t the first organization to abandon the term EMS. The Association of Municipal Emergency Medical Services of Ontario (AMEMSO) recently renamed itself the Ontario Association of Paramedic Chiefs. Some ambulance services in Canada have also stopped using EMS in their company name, instead calling themselves a paramedic service or, simply, paramedics, Nolan says. “I would encourage leaders in all jurisdictions to consider the language they use and the branding choices they make so that the public knows what service they are receiving and they can build an identity associated with that,” he says.
That includes in the United States, he adds. While the media understand when a police officer delivers a baby or a firefighter rescues a family from a burning building, journalists often don’t know what to call those men and women in ambulances also doing heroic work on scene, he says. “We get caught up within our own industry with titles. In the U.S., there is this whole title-protection issue around EMT-Basic, EMT-Intermediate or EMT-Paramedic, and the public doesn’t really care. That is just us obsessing over credentialing,” he says. “We need to put down our swords in favor of communicating clearly.”
As EMS finds its way in a changing health care and reimbursement landscape, having a clear identity is more important than ever, Nolan adds. “We have a responsibility to communicate clearly to the public who we are and what we do,” he says. “The public wants to know that it’s getting value for the money, which services are available to them, what role we play in their lives, and how we make a difference in their lives.”
Read more here.
EMS leaders gather for national consensus conference on community paramedicine
More than 100 EMS leaders met in Atlanta in early October 2012 for the National Consensus Conference on Community Paramedicine. The meeting, organized by the North Central EMS Institute and the Joint Committee on Rural Emergency Care, was funded by a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Panelists discussed five major community paramedicine issues: funding and reimbursement; regulation of programs and practitioners; expanded roles; education; and medical direction.
“This was an important step in the continued development of community paramedicine nationally,” says Gary Wingrove, president of the North Central EMS Institute. “It was an opportunity for the public to address policy makers and regulators directly. The output of this meeting will guide the community paramedicine policy work that will continue over the next five years.”
Visit communityparamedic.org/2012ncccp.aspx for handouts and streaming video of the meeting.
Better EMS for kids needed in rural America, pediatricians group says
Pediatricians should work cooperatively with local EMS agencies to improve emergency care for children in rural America, according to a policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released in October 2012.
About 10 percent of emergency responses are for children and young adults aged 24 and younger, according to background information in the statement. Children in rural areas may have unique emergency needs because of exposure to certain types of work and leisure activities or equipment, such as farm machinery, ATVs, grain silos and horses, according to the policy statement. At the same time, these children have increased risk of disability and death from injury, trauma and disease because of long transport times to care, as well as other health care access issues such as a lack of cell phone service or high-speed wireless access, ambulances not being stocked with equipment for children and responders with EMT-Basic-level training vs. paramedics.
To improve prehospital and emergency care for children in rural areas, the AAP calls for pediatricians to participate in simulations and other training of prehospital providers to care for young patients; to provide guidance in recruiting and retaining EMS providers who have pediatric training; and to make sure EMS is an integral part of the system to address children’s health care needs.
After CPR, dead man lives to cast ballot
Here’s one from the Detroit News that will bring a smile. On Nov. 6, 2012, an elderly man was at a township office in suburban Detroit filling out an absentee ballot when he collapsed in sudden cardiac arrest. Ty Houston, a nurse, heard the man’s wife scream and quickly sprang into action, laying the victim on the floor and starting compressions. “After a few minutes, he revived and started breathing again,” Houston told the newspaper. “He knew his name and his wife’s name.”
The man’s first words after coming back from the dead: “Did I vote?”
North Carolina partners with the HeartRescue Project
In North Carolina, the RACE-CARS program (Regional Approach to Cardiovascular Emergencies Cardiac Arrest Resuscitation System) makes up the largest statewide system of emergency cardiovascular care, coordinating 122 hospitals and 540 EMS agencies to rapidly diagnose and provide emergency treatment for heart attacks and sudden cardiac arrest. Part of this strategy includes community education and reducing disparities in SCA treatment.
This effort is supported by the HeartRescue Project, a multi-year initiative of the Medtronic Foundation that aims to improve sudden cardiac arrest survival rates by 50 percent in six partnering states, and American Medical Response. For more information, visit heartrescueproject.com.
