The North Central EMS Institute and National EMS Management Association have announced the creation of a new organization, the Center for Leadership, Innovation and Research in Emergency Medical Services (CLIR).
In one of many partnerships CLIR hopes to establish, the group is working with the Center for Emergency Medicine in Pittsburgh to conduct three studies during the next three years: the cost of staff turnover at EMS agencies; the culture of safety at EMS agencies; and the effect of sleep deprivation and fatigue on the accuracy of EMS workers. Working under the EMS Agency Research Network for Quality and Safety Improvement (EMSARN) umbrella, CLIR is recruiting providers from all parts of the country to participate in the studies. EMSARN has divided the country into four regions, with the goal of recruiting 25 ambulance companies from each region—representing volunteer, combination and paid agencies—to participate in the long-term research.
The cost-of-turnover study is designed to quantify the price of processing terminations and training replacements, data the EMS associations could take to Congress to win legislation for EMS professional loan and grant programs. Nurses and other health care professionals have used this strategy to win the financial assistance that helps support their professions today, according to Gary Wingrove, director of government relations and strategic affairs for Mayo Clinic Medical Transport in Rochester, Minn.
In return for their participation, agencies will receivecopies of the studies that depict how their agencies perform and compare to others; spreadsheets to calculate their own turnover costs; technical support; and gift cards, among other benefits. The identities of the agencies and individual respondents will be anonymous. For information on how to participate in the studies, visit clirems.org.
NASEMSO Comments on Anthrax Attack Guidance
The National Association of State EMS Officials (NASEMSO) has submitted comments to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regarding that agency’s plan for protecting emergency responders in the aftermath of a widespread anthrax attack. Highlights of the comments are as follows:
- NASEMSO dismissed the plan’s suggestion that fire and EMS would be able to help maintain civil order to ensure the security of those delivering antibiotics and carrying on other critical work.
- The safeguards that would be put into place to protect responders should be extended to include their families. “Responders have to feel a level of comfort when you put them in these positions that their family members are going to be taken care of,” said program adviser Leslee Stein-Spencer, R.N., M.S.
- The DHS plan would divide into tiers those responders who would be most and earliest at risk. NASEMSO argued that EMS responders should be included in tier I, most at risk. “We are very concerned about this,” said Stein-Spencer. “In any weapons of mass destruction, agent release or similar situation, EMS responders are going to be there first ... they’ll be the first people treating and transporting affected people from the incident.”
- In the vaccine guidance, rather than the federal government determining priorities and siting local stockpiles, local decision-makers should help determine priorities.
- Instead of sharing or using regular sites for personal protective equipment and medical countermeasures for responders, separate dispensing centers should be established if pre-placement in homes is not used.
To read the entire response, visit regulations.gov and search for document DHS-2009-0091-0066. To read the proposed guidance, search the same site for docket ID DHS-2009-0091.
Rural Firefighters Are Aging, With Few Replacements
For the first time since the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) began tracking firefighter age by community size in 1987, the majority of firefighters protecting communities of fewer than 2,500 are 40 years of age or older. In 1987, more than 63 percent of firefighters protecting these small communities were under the age of 40. Currently 400,000 firefighters out of a total of 1.15 million protect these rural communities, with 399,000 serving as volunteers.
These statistics reflect the difficulties that rural departments, especially volunteer departments, face in recruiting and retaining young people. In recent years, many municipalities and federal legislation offered tax and other incentives to volunteer firefighters and EMS responders, but the results have yet to be felt.
The statistics were taken from the NFPA’s “Firefighter Fatalities in the United States in 2008.” To view the document, visit nfpa.org/assets/files/PDF/osfff.pdf.
