Emergency Medical Services Management (Research Paper Sample)

Emergency medical services management
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Abstract
The study’s purpose is to identify what EMS management functions are, the training developments made in the EMS field and ongoing education’s role in aiding EMS management. The study reviews literature from both the internet as well as written material concerning the history and advancements made in the EMS field. Qualitative data collected through document analysis is analysed through content analysis hence the following findings; great improvements achieved in EMS management training and ongoing education is central to the development of EMS system management.
Introduction
EMS management programs are offered to educate medical service providers and prepare them for management or administrative roles. Education as well as training plays a key role in ensuaring the medical service personnel are equipped with the knowledge to handle sensitive health matters that require; emergency preparedness, special operations, incident management, disaster planning as well as response, deployment, illness as well as injury prevention et al. There have been great steps achieved towards developing as well as improving EMS systems management across the globe and especially in the USA. Apart from the technological advances that have improved emergency response services, there have been developments in the training sector with many institutions now offering improved professional management training. EMS has as a field experienced increased professionalism and hence creating an opportunity for emergence of competent and skilled administrators, managers, supervisors or senior paramedics who have improved efficiency as well as productivity in EMS systems.
Decades ago, a deliberation made by a panel that was presided over by the NHTSA famously known as the education agenda advised on the need to implement enhanced structured systems capable of educating future EMS professionals (Sanders, 2012). The goal of the agenda was to ensure creation of a system to help increase efficiency in the education process of EMS and EMS management. Among the main recommendations in the agenda was restructuring the curriculum of EMS education to make it capable of producing improved and competent EMS personnel in the future. Another blue print developed was a leadership guide that should be used to ensure quality improvement in EMS. EMS mangers currently use the document as a guide in implementing programs that monitor as well as ensure patient care provided within all the EMS systems is always improved and exhibit high quality.
The panel envisaged a system that could enhance quality education consistency hence attracting competent graduates. In that light, this study seeks to address two issues; what kind of progress has been made with regards to the agenda’s visions? But more importantly, what is the importance of ongoing education or training in EMT systems management? There are several factors that make EMS management a complex responsibility. Judging by the nature of sensitivity involved with EMS activities, there needs to be an enhanced program that ensures EMS mangers undergo a continuous process of education or training to enable them acquire skills as well as capabilities so that they can constantly be in tandem with the ever changing work environment.
Literature review
EMT systems are made up of a group consisting of individuals who work together to achieve emergency medical care objectives in cases of emergencies. The EMS systems therefore take the shape of an organization and EMS management must entail activities aimed at ensuring there is maximised efficiency in the EMS systems, increased productivity within the system and problem solving duties are effectively handles in line with set standards and objectives. A theoretical framework that explains the nature of organizations related to medical health practise is the organizational theory.
Organizational theory relates to the act of studying organizations with an aim of identifying general themes that can be helpful in solving problems, enhancing efficiency as well as productivity and meeting the required needs within an organization (Royeen, Jensen & Harvan, 2009). The organizational theory borrows from different fields of knowledge from sociology, psychology, anthropology, and economics to political science. The framework assists in identifying and learning behaviour as well as individual dynamics. It also explains within an organizational context the group dynamics. The organizational theory is important in the study of EMS management as it equips EMS managers or executives with knowledge, skills as well as abilities to run an EMS system in a more effective and efficient way.
Another theory that relates to EMS management training is the systems theory. Systems theory involves the study that helps in analysing the complexity nature of systems (Royeen, Jensen & Harvan, 2009). Systems are groups of interrelated parts that together work through a dynamic process. According to the systems theoretical framework, EMS system’s parts just like other system’s parts are made up of both functional relationships and structural relationships. The theory suggests that functional relationship can only be achieved in a system if there is a dynamic force that enhances integration which consequently increases the working together of the different parts of the system. EMS management systems are made up of groups of people with different personalities work together to achieve the systems goals. For the effective as well as efficient functioning of these systems to be achieved, EMS system managers must acquire proper knowledge as well as skills to help them instil team work mentalities within systems to ensure they function as a unit.
A literature review using scholarly materials explains how EMS systems function including specific roles of various medical personnel making up a unit. To understand EMT management, the whole EMT unit must be categorized based on the levels involved. The system consists of dispatcher, emergency medical technician, emergency medical responders, advanced EMT as well as paramedics. The dispatcher performs telecommunication duties. The dispatcher is responsible for offering directions to relevant agencies towards a scene. The dispatcher is basically a primary target attached to the public. The relevant agencies the dispatcher offers direction include ambulances operating either on the ground or air, law enforcement and fire departments among other public service offering departments.
Apart from the role of coordinating with the public departments offering safety services, the other major roles include dispatch medical information as well as managing EMS resources. The EMR’s main function is to provide critical patients in an emergency scene necessary lifesaving care. They are normally the first EMS system’s trained personnel to get to a scene. Equipped with basic knowledge as well as skills to intervene and save lives, they are also able to offer assistance to more advanced personnel in transporting patients. Their role is basically to access the patient’s condition severity, determine necessary emergency care and provide the necessary emergency care required. EMTs are generally trained to handle critical life support care. They offer care assistance to paramedics during transportation of patients due to their skills in using ambulance medical equipment.
AEMTs have a more advanced training as well as skills to handle advances emergency care during patient transportation. Their advanced training normally varies depending on the state they operate in. Paramedics who form the final level are given an all-rounded training to handle both the basic as well as the advanced medical care during emergencies. They are capable of performing various operations among them; making clinical decisions after patient assessment and administering drug therapy.
There have been developments in the EMS field for a while and the state of affairs twenty years back is much a contrast of the current scenario. Much has changed in terms of the pre hospital service delivery. Systems have grown rapidly through technology and medical advancement to a state that requires more professionalism in EMS management. Among the activities that have changed include pre hospital services such as sudden illness, treating of trauma patients, treating patients with breathing difficulties as well as ensuring their stabilization during transportation to medical facilities (Sanders, 2012).
The nature and complexity of activities due to development in the field requires EMS managers of the contemporary to acquire appropriate training to master the management principles necessary to manage EMS systems. Despite practical experiences in the field regarding response to medical emergencies, EMS managers of today must receive EMS management training so that they can be able to cope with the current sophistications due to change in the nature of emergencies, change in medical advancements as well as technology and finally the development of the level of training or education of EMS personnel.
EMS management duties are carried out by people such as supervisors, senior paramedics, administrators as well as training officers. These professionals tasked to manage as well as supervise EMS systems must have the capabilities of team leading and must also exhibit the ability of leading their emergency medical personnel towards their respective unit’s desired goals. There are several factors both internally and externally that make EMS management a huge responsibility. Among the greatest challenges faced by management is dynamism of the working environment as well as technological advances in the EMS field...