Take a Survey on the Future of EMS

2010-03-18T15:08:22

Are you ready to share your opinion? Of course you are! Josh King, Director and Paramedic with Richland County Ambulance Service in Sidney, Montana, is asking for your input about your time with Emergency Medical Services.

Take a moment of your time to fill out this quick survey in a national effort to identify where individual care providers feel EMS is, and which areas of EMS can be improved.

Check out Josh’s personal letter to you:

Dear Emergency Care Provider or Emergency Response Personnel:

My name is Josh King; I am Director and Paramedic with Richland County Ambulance Service in Sidney, Montana. I’m writing today to ask for your input about your time with Emergency Medical Services.

The field of volunteer Emergency Medical Services is at a critical point in its history – many volunteer services are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit new and retain their existing volunteers.  Within the past five years, many rural volunteer services have been forced to close their doors, forcing neighboring community’s agencies to provide care to a larger area, and thus stretching their own resources.  As state and federal levels of government develop revisions in policy to reverse this trend, it is up to these volunteer services themselves to ensure their communities’ available care at all times.  

As part of this process, this ambulance service has begun collecting data from emergency response personnel nationwide to help identify tactics every individual volunteer EMS or emergency response service can employ to maximize its volunteer base and availability. Clicking this link will direct you to a quick online questionnaire – I invite you to please fill it out with the most appropriate answers to you as an individual.  

This project is the second stage of a national effort to identify where individual care providers feel EMS is, and which areas of EMS can be improved.  We have seen exciting results from the first stage of this project, and through your help and input we plan to share what we’ve learned and raise the bar for emergency services and professionals nationwide.

We would like to hear from as many ambulance attendants as possible throughout the United States.  I encourage you to pass this link onto your coworkers, neighboring crews, or anyone else you may know in the field.  The questionnaire link will be open until April 2nd 2010.  
           
This questionnaire is compiled from common issues reported by Emergency Medical Technicians throughout the United States and will help to identify demographic information as well as key problem areas in the EMS field.  We project to complete analysis of the collected data in March 2011, and the results will be made available through Richland County Ambulance Service’s website, or will be sent to your email address if you like.
           
Whether paid, volunteer, or somewhere in between it is each of our responsibilities to ensure that our communities are safe and remain covered by our services.  We at Richland County Ambulance Service thank you for your time and dedication to the EMS field and likewise, to the wellbeing of others.

Sincerely,
                         
Josh King, EMT-P
Richland County Ambulance Service Director                                  

Hearshell VanLuven, EMT-B
Richland County EMT                      

216 14th Ave SW • Sidney, Montana 59270 • Phone: (406) 488-2180 • www.sidneyhealth.org