Emergency medical service (EMS) workers, like paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMT), run toward dangerous and chaotic situations to treat the sick, injured and dying. In addition to training and experience, EMS workers rely on medical equipment, medicine, and their vehicles to save lives when every second counts. To highlight EMS Week, we’re putting a [...]
May 21-27 is Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Week, and today is specifically recognized as EMS for Children Day. This year's theme is “EMS STRONG: Always in Service,” which for Arizona means a focus on the resiliency, wellness, and safety of EMS personnel. Arizona’s EMS personnel are an integral piece of our state’s public health and [...]
Our state’s trauma system is comprised of dedicated healthcare professionals delivering compassionate, quality care across 42 state-designated trauma centers (hospitals specializing in trauma care), 200+ emergency medical services agencies, and countless other first responders and heroic bystanders – all serving as a critical link in the trauma chain of survival for tens of thousands of [...]
The Buckeye Fire-Medical-Rescue Department recently became Arizona’s fourth emergency medical services (EMS) agency to successfully obtain ADHS Treat & Refer (T&R) EMS Agency recognition. Arizona's T&R Recognition Program recognizes EMS agencies that have demonstrated optimal patient safety and quality of care by matching appropriate treatment, transport, and care destination options to the needs of [...]
Arizona uses a Certificate of Necessity process to license ambulance services. This process can be challenging for new applicants because it uses terminology and accounting practices that the person responsible for completing the application may not be familiar with. To help overcome that problem, our Bureau of EMS and Trauma System has begun posting important [...]
Our department's injury surveillance system achieved an overall score of 86.1 percent in a Traffic Records Assessment that was just completed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. We exceeded the 24-state average score of 64.3 percent. The Traffic Records Assessment was managed by the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, which worked with staff from our [...]
One of our top Strategic Map objectives is to improve access to our services by leveraging technology. We took a great leap forward in that area when our new On-Line EMCT Certification went live this week. The new electronic certification system allows Arizona’s 10,000 Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics to apply for and renew their certificate [...]
Around the Country, State Emergency Medical Services offices are looking for ways to help returning Veterans with medical experience find employment in the EMS industry. We’ll be making it a priority in 2014 to engage more Veterans with EMS experience to use their skills in Arizona’s progressive EMS and Trauma System. We have a couple [...]
On previous Blogs I’ve shared information about Community Integrated Paramedicine. One of the most promising opportunities for Community Paramedicine is in working with hospitals to prevent readmission of patients with diseases like diabetes, asthma or congestive heart failure. It’s also a great opportunity for EMS providers to provide some coaching on other prevention initiatives including [...]
A couple of years ago I had our folks in the Bureau of EMS and Trauma System write a guidance document on what we believe is appropriate to include in ambulance contracts. We noticed that these contracts were getting very complicated and included a whole lot of stuff that was very expensive… but that didn’t have much to [...]
