Index History
of EMS Research |
IntroductionMedicine is primarily concerned with preventing and curing disease and relieving suffering. The Emergency Medical Service (EMS) is an important part of the health care system, especially for people who suffer sudden and unexpected emergencies. In most communities, EMS is regarded as a public good. There are myriad approaches to offering EMS: it may be provided by the fire department, by another agency within the local government, by private entities that provide care within a local geographic area, by volunteer organizations, or by any number of other configurations. Emergency medical service is often regarded as including the full spectrum of emergency care from recognition of the emergency condition, requesting emergency medical aid, provision of prehospital care, through definitive care in the hospital. It may also include medical response to disasters, planning for and providing medical coverage at mass gatherings, and interfacility transfer of patients. However, for the purposes of this document, the examination of EMS is limited to the more traditional, colloquial definition: prehospital emergency care from the time of the request for medical aid until arrival at and transfer of care to the hospital. EMS care is provided by a variety of
personnel, both paid and volunteer, who are trained at various
levels of sophistication including first responders, EMT-Basic,
EMT-Intermediate, and EMT-Paramedic. Basic level providers,
trained in as little as 110 hours, provide services such as
first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and patient stabilization.
At the other end of the training spectrum, paramedics, who
have acquired up to thousands of hours of training, bring
highly sophisticated medical interventions that require critical
thinking, such as endotracheal intubation and intravenous
medication administration, to patients in the prehospital
setting. EMS agencies often employ physicians with the expertise
to evaluate new treatments and with the ability to develop
and improve protocols based on scientific findings.12 |