Is EMS or ambulances a required service in the USA?

[zippyRN]

mature services are generally larger services

if you consider the UK there are now about a dozen services covering the land mass of 'great britain' - often covering 4 or 5 English counties and i nthe case of Wales and Scotland a single national service , NIAS is a single service for the whole of ulster , Iom, Guernse, jersey each have a single servicei

Australia is in a similar position with each state having one or two services ( IIRC it's VIC that has 2 services metropolitan and rural)

[spenac]

So are there any states that have made EMS an essential service?

[JakeEMTP]

North Carolina has. I am trying to find some proof of this, it is a sea of documentation . :roll:

I did find this article though.

http://www.ncmedicaljournal.com/jul-aug-07/Atkinson.pdf

[n5iln]

Personally I would like to see a universal system for every county where I live. ALL under one service and none of this 5 different services for one area. But they would have to be staffed with GOOD medics and not volunteers. They would have to be professional looking not show up on calls in shorts and tee shirts.

Lady

The obvious question here: where is the money for that going to come from?

Discuss.

[FormerEMSLT297]

What is the definition of mandatory ?

[fiznat]

Unfortunately, rural areas do not have the means and revenue to fund most EMS.

I HATE this. It is the worst argument in the world, to say that we "dont have the money" to fund something as essential as EMS. Can you imagine if the same thing was said about funding for police? Or fire? Or public works? Or schools? Why is emergency medical service LAST on the list of these things to be considered essential? They don't have the money? Are you kidding?? FIND the money. This is important enough.

EMS needs to be a municipality like fire and police. This would create better paying jobs with better benefits, which will increase competition for the job. Competition brings with it quality and respect. Let the private services keep doing transfers. Thats where they make their money, anyways.

I really dont understand how this can be so clear to us working in the system, but apparently a mystery to those up on our respective capitol hills. We need a freaking lobby, already.

[Redcell19512]

I HATE this. It is the worst argument in the world, to say that we "dont have the money" to fund something as essential as EMS. Can you imagine if the same thing was said about funding for police?

Sadly I can. There are many areas in my County that either don't have 24 hour police coverage or they have no police dept at all. These areas end up being covered by the State Police. Example, Heidelberg Twp and Hereford Twp. both rely on State Police coverage. One trooper will cover both of these Townships (as well as several other townships in addition). It takes a trooper 45 minutes to an hour to drive from Hereford to Heidelberg "emergency speed". Now imagine that you live in these areas and you're calling to report a robbery in progress at your home. 45 minutes would be a looooong wait.

[Chief1C]

My county has 16 municipalities. There are no municipal police, the State Police provide 3 cars for day time and 1 for night for the whole county. There are nine fire companies, 6 ambulance services. There are four boroughs, and seven organized hamlets in townships. Only one borough had a water system, a second has a fire protection line for plugs, but no drinking water. Two hamlets have sewer systems, and three boroughs do. One boro has neither.

The municipalities do not provide the main source of funding for any emergency service dept. They may get a stipend from a small fire tax. We wanted paramedics, and when it came to vote, the tax payers chose public recreation over public safety. In our case, it wasn't that they can't afford it. We know they can afford it, they just didn't want to pay for it at all. The budget figures from the fire departments indicate that none of the nine could afford to pay anyone, unless they stopped buying heating fuel, apparatus fuel and insurance.

[CBEMT]

We wanted paramedics, and when it came to vote, the tax payers chose public recreation over public safety. In our case, it wasn't that they can't afford it. We know they can afford it, they just didn't want to pay for it at all. The budget figures from the fire departments indicate that none of the nine could afford to pay anyone, unless they stopped buying heating fuel, apparatus fuel and insurance.

This is what I've bashed my head against the wall trying to get through to people here, but none of them want to hear about it. As if one day the whole town will magically come to their senses when told that they don't have reasonable (never mind ideal) EMS coverage, and volunteer to jack their own property taxes 25%.

The response is usually "Well, if there weren't any more volunteers, they'd have to provide paid service."

BS! I've seen it happen. The local fire department hands in their gear and walks out over some dispute or another. The town council promises the citizens that arrangements have been made with the surrounding towns to provide mutual aid- never mentioning the fact that response times just quadrupled, assuming those departments have anybody available at all. So nobody knows how much danger they're in. They only know that the town council says they're covered, and nobody's taxes went up- which is all they were really paying attention for anyway.

Two degreed paramedics per truck 24/365.

Riiiight.

[spenac]

volunteer to jack their own property taxes 25%.

Don't know where you got the raise taxes 25%. It doesn't take alot of funds to get things moving towards professional. First you start billing for all calls transport or not, if you already bill as a volly service increase it to cover labor costs (total labor costs per year divided by avg number of runs per year and get a ball park amount of how much to raise it for labor), hire a professional billing/collection firm, etc.

Yes the citizens will still have to provide funds to keep it going but it may be the same amount already received or just slightly more. I know a number of communitys that bill about $5 extra on the water bill each month that goes into the EMS fund. That amount coupled with collections from patients will support a paid department. Unless your taxes are basically 0% you will not need a 25% increase.

You also made a statement about vollys that walked and a council that sugar coated the risks, lawyers will have a field day with that first casualty as result of delayed response. In fire that may take a while in rural areas. With EMS same would happen just a whole lot quicker because we all know people are just dieing to ride in our ambulances. Then after short wait paid EMS dept.