Editor’s note: Best Practices is a membership benefit of the National EMS Management Association. We invited Troy Hagen, its new president, to introduce himself to our readers as a guest columnist this month; our regular author, John Becknell, will return in February. After more than 19 years with Ada County Paramedics in Boise, Idaho, Hagen was recently named CEO of Care Ambulance in Southern California, a Falck International subsidiary with more than 800 employees and 190,000 EMS calls annually.
When I was a paramedic, I truly enjoyed helping people and knew I was making a difference in their lives—and even saving a few. Calling 911 is one of the most stressful times in an individual’s life, and helping my patients through their crisis was very rewarding.
When I stepped into supervision, I had concerns about losing that one-on-one interaction with my patients, and I wondered whether I would find supervision as rewarding. But I found that I had an even greater impact on patient care, albeit indirectly: As a paramedic, I impacted only the patients I saw in a shift; when I became a supervisor, I discovered I had the ability to impact care for every patient for the entire shift.
The supervisor ensures that the crews have everything they need to care for their patients and holds the system accountable to the performance expectations established by management. As you move into administration, you impact the care that the entire department provides by developing an effective strategic direction, implementing sound policies and procedures, hiring the right people, ensuring clinical competence, and managing the budget to purchase and maintain the right vehicles, equipment and supplies to do the job.
Each step from field provider to supervision to administration requires new competencies that you need to learn and develop, all of which will help your agency to accomplish specific goals and objectives. But what is the next step after that? Well, how about changing the environment and changing the rules?
With more than 800,000 EMS professionals responding to more than 36.6 million EMS responses each year in the U.S., imagine the impact your voice can have at a national level. Advocating for EMS issues and the EMS profession can be game-changing and improve care across the board. Getting involved in national EMS associations can help elevate the entire profession by improving our systems’ quality, effectiveness and efficiencies. National associations can establish standards, share innovations from best practices, and develop and track benchmarks that people can use to measure their own agencies.
Effective Jan. 1, I have the great privilege of being president of the National EMS Management Association (NEMSMA). The strategic plan describes NEMSMA as “a professional association of EMS leaders dedicated to the discovery, development, and promotion of excellence in leadership and management in EMS systems. NEMSMA will research, discover, develop, and promote best and most promising practices in EMS leadership, management, and administration through example, education, and advocacy.”
Gary Wingrove, a former president, set NEMSMA on a pathway to getting involved in national conversations. He was successful in getting NEMSMA a seat at the table for national policy discussions. Following Gary, Skip Kirkwood helped develop NEMSMA products, including the Field Training and Evaluation Program course and a soon-to-be-released textbook about managing ambulance services.
As I take the reins, my plan is to build on these successes and help NEMSMA make a difference in the EMS profession. I plan to accomplish that in several ways:
Engage the membership. There is too much work for just a few dedicated individuals to tackle if we want to make a difference. We need active members to participate in committees and projects and see them through to fruition.
Partner with other associations. Many other national associations are doing great work. It makes sense to partner with these agencies to create synergies and accomplish more and better products rather than each organization working in silos and performing duplicative work.
Partner with EMS media outlets. We need to tell the EMS story, portray leadership challenges and highlight best practice solutions.
Engage our federal partners and Congress in meaningful conversation. We need to discuss the status of EMS, what help is needed and what they can do to help EMS and the patients we serve.
Develop additional tools. We need more management and leadership tools and products for EMS leaders to use on a daily basis.
Offer educational opportunities in management and leadership topics. The leadership core competencies phase of the NEMSMA EMS Leadership Agenda for the Future will be completed in 2013 and will serve as the foundation for educational offerings and management tools.
NEMSMA needs your help. Do not leave the future of your profession to others—get involved and help shape your future. With the health care reform movement, EMS is facing a watershed moment. This is our opportunity to better integrate EMS into the health care delivery system.
When the opportunity arises, step up in your organization and join the national conversation. You, your community and your patients are worth the effort.
