By Jamie Thompson
EMS1 Senior Editor
ATLANTA — EMS should follow the fire service’s approach to reducing fires through prevention programs by doing the same with injury prevention, a session at EMS Expo in Atlanta was told Wednesday.
Jeff Lindsey, chief (ret.) of Estero, Fla., Fire Rescue and assistant professor of emergency medicine at the George Washington University in Washington DC, said agencies can work to reduce its call volume by implementing injury prevention programs.
Lindsey, who is also chief learning officer for Health & Safety Institute, told the session he put together a thesis on the issue about 12 years ago, and said while progress is being made, the number of agencies working on such programs is still limited.
“There are a few agencies around the country that are doing this, but they are very few and far between,” he said. “For the most part, for some reason we have not got the momentum that we should have had with this, but it’s one of those topics that is coming to the forefront of the industry.”
The reform of the U.S. health care system – and its expected greater emphasis on preventive care – means EMS will be expected to play a leading a role, Lindsey said.
“Think about how things will look in our industry once the health care reform goes through,” he said. “It is going to impact us in the industry. What we need to start looking at now is being proactive rather than reactive.”
Many of the injury prevention programs in place today came about as a result of grass-roots efforts rather than from management, Lindsey said, and should begin with a comprehensive needs assessment.
He told the session various sources of data can be used to indentify injury patterns including trauma registries, PCRs, law enforcement records and medical examiner records. Lindsey said securing data at the start of the process is vital toward proving a need for a specific program.
Lindsey said implementing injury prevention initiatives in communities can follow three main formats – the creation of a law or local ordnance, education or training programs, or a public information campaign.
“The bottom line for any of these comes down to no matter what you are doing, it’s a behavioral change which you need to effect,” he said. “In order to make an effective change, then you have to change the behaviors of individuals.”
Lindsey cited the Frederick, Md., Fire Department’s fire prevention program as being a good example of creative thinking.
“What they have done is every time there is a fire, once the building is deemed safe, they get the neighbors – after getting permission from the home owner – to go through and look,” he said.
“People tend not to think about fires until it happens to someone close, and when you are going through someone’s house nearby and see all of their belongings gone, it does make them think.”