| Gary Ludwig |
Community-Oriented EMS
| Gary Ludwig is the EMS Bureau Chief for the St. Louis Fire Department. He is currently serving his third term as an elected board member to the EMS Section for the International Association of Fire Chiefs and lectures quite frequently at fire and EMS conferences. He has a Master's Degree in Management and is a licensed paramedic. |
This article can be found on
page 56 of the Sept/Oct 1997
issue of 9-1-1 Magazine.
Does your EMS system meet the needs of your community in regards to response times and performance? Does administration assess the strengths and weaknesses of the EMS system to determine if extending or improving the services already offered or if implementing new services would be of value to their department in the future? If your EMS system is consistently meeting the community's core needs for emergencies, then your service should be looking at how it can enhance and provide more services, thus increasing its value to the community.
Some value added services can include injury prevention programs, elderly patient follow-up, interfacility transports, teaching CPR classes and in some cases, home health care.
Others include a "welcome wagon" type program, where the ambulance responsible for a specific area will show up at a home, within a week of a new owner or tenant moving in. How does the EMS system know there is a new tenant or home owner? Simple, a change in the utility services usually indicates someone new is moving in. Some EMS services like to bring a "goodie" bag of some type. In the bag, you might find smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, calendars, refrigerator magnets, flyers, plus more. Simply put - it is an added value that the EMS service provides to the community.
Public education is another area where an EMS system can contribute more to the community. Public education may include prevention efforts as well as public relations. While fire and injury prevention efforts assist the citizens by reducing the likelihood they will require EMS assistance, public relations programs should introduce them to the system that is in place to respond when assistance is required.
Paramedics and EMTs are constantly in public places. This high visibility can provide opportunities for public relations and marketing efforts. After all, EMS is managed with business applications that include delivering a product with quality service and marketing that product. Each EMT and paramedic in essence is a marketing representative.
By educating citizens on the value and necessity of an EMS service, we can further familiarize the citizenry of how important effective EMS delivery can be. Examples of public education other than prevention could be, "How and when should I call 9-1-1" or "What can a paramedic do?"
Public education sessions should be tailored to the specific needs of your audience or focus group. Certainly, a session geared towards a retirement community would be different from one for lawmakers. Afterward, all public education and public relations efforts should be evaluated. This assessment helps ensure that the intended message has been received.
Injury prevention is another area where an EMS system can add value to a community. EMS organizations can build on their community education efforts to include other causes of injuries. Examples of such programs are vehicle air safety bag, seat belt and bicycle helmet use.
It is widely understood that injury prevention is more cost-effective than injury treatment. The Tucson Fire Department was highly successful with a campaign to prevent child drownings. As a result of their efforts, child drowning-related deaths in Tucson have decreased by more than 50%.
There are already established injury prevention opportunities. For instance, October is Child Health Month. The first Monday in October was chosen as "Child Health Day" to create public awareness of the value of preventive health care for children. Similarly, a week in February has been chosen as "National Child Passenger Safety Awareness Week." This is an excellent opportunity to remind a community that taking time to protect children in cars takes only a few moments.
Another idea which an EMS system can do to increase their value in the community is to do free blood pressure screenings. And the best place to do free blood pressure screenings is at the front door of a supermarket on a busy Saturday morning while units go shopping to pick up groceries for the crew quarters. One medic can be inside to buy the needed provisions, while the other medic sets up a card table at the front of the doorway with a sign hanging off the front which says "Free Blood Pressure Screenings - Courtesy of the XXXXX Fire Department." Each person who has their blood pressure taken would receive a card, again with the department name on it, indicating their blood pressure reading.
Free CPR classes can also add value to an EMS system. The American Heart Association defines four components in the "Chain of Survival." These are: early access, CPR, defibrillation, and advanced cardiac life support. Research and models have shown that, as the time from collapse to bystander CPR lengthens, the likelihood of patient survival decreases. EMS agencies can increase patient survival by ensuring the system includes all four links in the chain of survival. EMS organizations can strengthen the CPR link by teaching a portion of the community to provide CPR. This training increases the availability of bystander CPR, augmenting the overall performance of the EMS system, positively affecting cardiac arrest outcomes, and adding value to the EMS agency.
As EMS agencies find themselves "stepping more out of the box" with expanded scope of practice procedures and managed care alternative delivery models, adding value to our agencies is certainly a needed and overdo example of proving our worth to the community.
