Protecting those who care for us! Occupational Safety challenges for Emergency Medical Service transportation

Multidisciplinary Panel Discussion

EMS has been identified to be a dangerous profession, and although the risks and hazards have been identified to be related primarily to the transportation component of their occupation – there has been very little focus on this aspect in either training or policy.

The major published texts addressing Emergency Responder Safety - make only brief mention of these issues – and the existing occupational health and safety standards focus primarily instead on blood bourn pathogens and biohazards.

There is extensive training in the realm of the delivery of health care interventions, and biohazard protection – However the focus on transportation safety at the scene or in the vehicles has not shared this focus, either in the training setting or from the perspective of occupational safety standards.

The focus of this panel is the safety of the transportation component of EMS practice: at the scene, from the scene to the ambulance, in the ambulance (to and from the scene), and then transporting the patient into the hospital environment.

The existing data on risk and hazard in each of these components will be presented by a panel of experts and leaders in these fields of EMS Safety. The panel will outline the major issues in each component of transport and where the data gaps are and also the spectrum of relevant safety standards and oversight and what gaps exist.