RACERS Board Member CoAuthors OpEd on State of EMS in COVID-19 EPIDEMIC
RaCERS Advisory Board Member Paul Maniscalco, MPA, MS, EMT/P, LP, President Emeritus of the International Association of EMS Chiefs, has co-authored “Dear Congress, now is the time to fix EMS,” which appears in EMS1.com, a leading industry website.
In the piece, Maniscalco and his colleagues Brian Maguire, Dr.PH, MSA, EMT-P; Daniel Gerard, MS, RN, NRP; Scot Phelps, JD, MPH, Paramedic; Barbara O’Neill, PhD, RN; Kathleen Handal, MD, and Richard Bissell, PhD make several recommendations for the emergency medical services industry in the United States.
The authors demand access to Personal protective Equipment, Decontamination protocols and equipment for decontamination of ambulances, additional funding and staff, better pay and benefits, equity in disability and death benefits, sustainable funding, and a unified federal agency for EMS issues and support.
“This is an critically important piece that addresses serious, acute and longstanding issues within the EMS community,” said Charles Jennings, PhD, Christian Regenhard Center Director. “EMS is the front lines of this crisis, and they must be supported now and going forward,” he added.
