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January 23, 2009

January 21, MSNBC - (National) Saving America's 911 system. Nationwide,

EMS units have become tasked with far more duties than they have the

resources and leadership to handle - far more, in fact, than they were

ever intended to handle. This has given rise to a whole host of risks,

including sleep-deprived EMS crews, long patient wait times, and an

entire field of emergency workers who lack the training to deal with a

large-scale catastrophe, be it a chemical attack or another Katrina.

" The phenomenon of 'no ambulances available' is becoming more and more

common throughout the country, " says a clinical adjunct professor of

emergency medicine at the University of Nevada School of Medicine. Most

state constitutions mandate such " essential services " as law enforcement

and fire suppression, but make no provision for EMS. One reason for

this, he says, is that their constitutions were written long before EMS

even existed. And given stretched state budgets, they are unlikely to

take it on now. Additionally, no federal administration exists to

further the cause of EMS in Congress. Solutions are being explored. For

instance, some fire departments have noted their own decline in

" business " and taken over EMS operations as a supplement. The professor

says that when fire departments take on EMS care, their call volumes

change so drastically that they become, essentially, EMS agencies. " They

do 70 percent EMS on average, " he says, " and 30 percent fire. And when

they embrace that and support EMS, as they do in Memphis and Seattle and

some other places, it works out well for everyone. " Source:

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