Rhode Island Fire Union & Municipalities Pushing for Legislation to Push for EMS Board Approval of All Regs

[EpiEMS]

In an interesting piece of news out of Rhode Island:

Rhode Island physicians groups are sounding alarms about legislation moving through the General Assembly that they say would strip the authority of the state health director over emergency medical services.

The legislation (H-6282 and S-860) would prevent the health director from enacting EMS regulations, protocols and licensing requirements without the approval of a 25-member board that currently serves in an advisory capacity.

Source: The Publics' Radio (Rhode Island's NPR station)

I'm not, in theory, opposed to this idea -- just a little trepidatious because of the recent...incidents in Rhode Island surrounding municipal fire departments' EMT-Cardiacs, and the associated implications around quality, given that the municipal fire departments represent the biggest component of said board.

Ideally, I'd love to have EMS boards made up of mostly EMS providers & the rest non-EMS provider experts, but I am cautious when there are many stakeholders that are pushing a very specific agenda that doesn't seem aligned to quality improvement and accountability.

What do you all think?

 

[CCCSD]

Aren’t FD EMS providers..?

 

[DrParasite]

Aren’t FD EMS providers..?

depends on who you ask.... and where you are from.

 

[E tank]

At the risk of getting a lot of hate mail, the biggest setback to EMS was putting blood pressure cuffs on fire engines.

 

[jgmedic]

I hope they are, otherwise wtf is this ambulance doing in my fire station??

 

[EpiEMS]

Aren’t FD EMS providers..?

Yes, but it appears the RI situation is mainly related to municipal fire departments trying to keep practices like ETI that they aren’t demonstrably competent in...and avoid spending money to upgrade the level of care.

 

[Summit]

RI is an odd bird

 

[E tank]

RI is an odd bird

really is...I'm kind of surprised they haven't found the investigator's headless and handless torso floatiing in Naragansett Bay.....

 

[EpiEMS]

Aren’t FD EMS providers..?

Let's just say the RI fire agencies are a problem.

To quote directly:

The single-largest constituency on the board is made up of municipal fire departments. And those fire departments run almost all of the state’s 89 emergency medical services agencies.

The state firefighters union had been bristling for years at the efforts of young doctors, including Asselin, to change the practices around emergency care, as well as attempts by state health officials to revise outdated regulations. They, as well as some municipal leaders, believed that doctors were trying to encroach on their autonomy and drive up costs.