Role of the emergency medical services (EMS) system as part of public health emergency response

ntroduction: The emergency medical services (EMS) system is one of the key components in disaster, terrorism and public health emergency preparedness and response. Public health agencies 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.

Methods: A nationally representative sample of the 203,465 basic and paramedic emergency medical service providers in the United States was surveyed to assess training in core areas of public health emergency preparedness. Additionally, a representative sample of all EMS agencies in the northern metropolitan New York City region were surveyed to determine their capacity to provide staffed ambulances to area hospitals during a disaster or pubic health emergency.

Results: 62.5% of EMS providers stated they could accomplish disease reporting while on-duty in addition to their current job duties. 42.6% and 47.6% stated they would be able to accomplish symptom cluster recognition and reporting, and public health education respectively. Furthermore, there is specific literature from both EMS and public health publications which support joint prehospital and public health preparedness initiatives.

Conclusion: 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.