The Future of Emergency Medical Services

The Future of Emergency Medical Services

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Table of Contents

Title Page1

Table of Contents2

Introduction3

The Future of EMS4

The future in Emergency Medical Services 5

Conclusion7

Introduction

Emergency medical services are services offered when emergencies occur, for example when a fire breaks out; the casualties receive emergency medical services. Another example is when a car crash occurs and there are casualties, they receive emergency medical services, also in the case of floods, similar medical services are offered. These are medical services that are offered in quick response to an accident. However, casualties at an accident scene have the right to either accept or refuse emergency medical services (Upson & Notarianni 2010). The medical practitioner attending to them has to fully inform the patient on their medical condition and the casualty can either accept or refuse the treatment. This paper will highlight the future of such medical services, considering the current legal reforms in the health sector mainly in the emergency medical services part.

The future of EMS

There are few assumptions that have to be made before considering the future of EMS; they include

Emergency medical services provide a common point for Public health, Public safety and public care systems. The principles used in these aspects are similar to those used in EMS.

The general public is hopeful that EMS will be offered in future. Communities have embraced EMS and handle this as a resource that should continue existing.

Emergency medical services have been offered to all people from different communities. The public expects that the diversity of EMS will continue.

Emergency medical services will continue to be an important part of the national health care system. It is expected that we will be a leading example in the world by integrating emergency medical services to the national health care services.

National policy makers will be keen to understand how emergency medical services work. It is important for them to understand how this health care scheme works so that they can assist in the funding process (Upson & Notarianni 2010).

The future in Emergency Medical Services;

Funds from the federal government have been decreasing are expected to continue decreasing. The federal government is expected to reduce the resources it allocates to Emergency Medical services in the future. The government aims at making the system self sufficient, in such a way that the patients who benefit from these medical services are able to finance the whole health care system (Upson & Notarianni 2010). This only applies to EMS services offered by public health institutions.

The health care sector in collaboration with the government is expected to conduct public awareness program. At this time, it is still not clear to many people how the EMS scheme will influence patients results for patients with different medical conditions. Some people are also not aware how the entire community benefits from Emergency Medical services. Public policy makers also fall into the category of those who should receive the public awareness program. This will enable them come up with policies that are effective in the sector. It is important for policy makers to fully understand the EMS systems.

There is expected increase in the use of information technology in sending alerts and getting response in the EMS systems. The future holds quicker methods of sending emergency alerts and receiving response and feedback. A person in an emergency situation can send the emergency alert as a short text message to the EMS service providers and receive quick feedback. It is also possible to stream videos of the accident scene at the Call center and the situation can be assessed before medical professionals are sent to respond to the situation. All this is possible through applications that are being developed. The apps will work both online and offline.

The use of information technology in providing better public health care also goes on in the provision of EMS. The future holds use of CCTV cameras on roads and social amenities to relay information to the service providers. This facilitates quicker response to emergency situations. The call centers do not have to wait for a call to reach out to an emergency situation. Alerts are sent to the call center through artificial intelligence. This program will be implemented in several steps, first a test program has to be implemented. Once its success is evaluated, it can be evaluated in other areas and centers.

Advancement of emergency medical services as a profession, this has already started happening with an increase in the number of schools that offer EMS as a course. EMS now and in future will be a course with can be pursued in different institutions of higher learning (Englart & Casolino 2002). Students will have the chance to specialize in this field in health care services. This provides room for more research to take place and developments in offering emergency health services. The studies available range from ambulance services to quick paramedic and first aid services.

Due to the prevailing fuel crisis, the provision of emergency medical services is expected to be a costly affair. For this reason, charges to patients will be higher as the service providers will be incurring higher costs of operation. Service providers are also expected to change the type of cars they use in accessing emergency situations. The 8 dollar diesel increase is expected to have severe effects on the provision of emergency medical service. The expected response is to change from normal ambulances to sprinter ambulances. This are fuel efficient ambulances which can run on lower costs and serve the same purpose.

In future, EMS service providers aim at providing wholesome health service. Currently, emergency medical service providers do not offer follow up services on medical situation. For example, after serving a patient the service providers do not follow up on the healing process of the patient (Englart & Casolino 2002). A change in this type of service is important so that a follow up on the health situation of the patient is offered. It is important for health care service providers to keep patients records and offered follow up services to ensure that the same problem does not occur constantly. A health problem is dealt with once and for all.

Health care providers aim at providing integrated health care services in cooperation with other health care providers. This goes from medical physicians to public safety agencies and health care service provider’s networks (Emergency medical services 2009). The process of linking together all the above organizations is important in order to have a database for all patients and a quicker response system. An alert received at one location can be responded to by another organization. There will be harmony in operations of both organizations. This will also ensure that patients receive the expected follow up on all health care provided to them by EMS service providers.

The legislation and regulations created to govern the EMS sector are also expected to change in the future (Emergency medical services 2009). With the cooperation of the law makers, such as the special licensing of EMS ambulances and air craft’s so that they can reach out to people in need at faster than ever, the creation of an agency that governs the entire EMS sector. The agency will play as the intermediary between the service providers and the law makers. A system of fund collection into a pool will also be a factor of consideration as funds from the federal government are reducing.

In Conclusion

Emergency medical services serve a very important part in public health care provision. Its future seems brighter as the services are brought closer to the people in aims to convert it to a community based project. When the community embraces this as their project they will be able to trust it and use it as a system for health care provision (Emergency medical services 2009). Every organization is integrating information technology to its functioning; EMS service providers are also doing this. It is important to use information technology for quicker relaying of information and response to emergency situations. The current economic situation is expected to change EMS services in the future, due to the high operating costs, the patients will also have to pay extra for the EMS services.

References

Emergency medical services. (2009). Redondo Beach, Calif.: InterLingua Medical Pub..

Englart, M. R., & Casolino, P. (2002). EMS worker. San Diego, CA: Blackbirch Press.

Upson, R., & Notarianni, K. A. (2010). Quantitative evaluation of fire and EMS mobilization times. New York, NY: Springer.