Altered standards of care for emergency medical services (EMS) personnel during a public health emergency

The emergency medical services (EMS) system is one of the key components in disaster, terrorism and public health emergency preparedness and response. The EMS system has developed over the past 30 years into an effective means of delivering prehospital medical care. Public health agencies across the United States typically provide regulatory oversight of emergency medical services, recent studies have demonstrated the value of a EMS/public health partnership in increasing a community's preparedness to disasters and other public health emergencies.

There is good evidence that an EMS-public health partnership can work to enhance the overall effectiveness of the public health system during many types of disasters and emergencies. EMS providers could provide services and critical functions including vaccine administration, case and contact tracing, emergency communications surveillance, and increased surge capacity through health care facility evacuation and mass patient transportation.

In this session, participants will discuss the potential roles of prehospital medical providers (EMTs and Paramedics) in augmenting the traditional public health and medical response to public health emergencies. Current and proposed national scope of practice models will be presented along with proposed educational modules for altered standards of care. Additionally, model protocols for utilizing EMTs and Paramedics for skills including but not limited to vaccine administration, antibiotic/antiviral dispensing, case and contact tracing, surveillance, and health care facility evacuation and mass patient transportation will be presented and discussed.