An Endorsement of the Proposal to Establish a United States Emergency Medical Service Administration

WHEREAS the Austin-Travis County EMS Employee Association represents the professional interests of EMS responders, Emergency Medical Dispatchers, Emergency Medical Technicians, Paramedics, and Nurses of the Austin-Travis County EMS Department in Austin, Texas;


WHEREAS Emergency Medical Dispatchers, Emergency Medical Technicians, Paramedics, and Nurses proudly and bravely serve our communities by responding to more than 90,000 emergency calls each year for help from the citizens they serve. However, even in a post-9/11 environment a critical component of the first responder community? Emergency Medical Services (EMS) response ?is a missing piece of the preparedness puzzle;


WHEREAS Federal offices that have been involved in EMS have had little to do with direct responder support, responder health & safety or operational innovation targeted for street level operations. The recent past demonstrates that the global federal system has been primarily concerned with curriculum development and modest medical intervention programs. While these issues are important from a ?global? EMS system perspective, EMS ?response? support and development of the responder have gone unaddressed resulting in what can best be described as the missing ?center of gravity?.
This has led to trivial support for field operations and marginalized EMS agencies;


WHEREAS EMS has a multifaceted role: as essential public safety responders, side-by-side with fire and police; as an out-of-hospital component of the health care continuum; and as public health providers. As such, there are numerous federal Departments that have complementary objectives with the EMS mission. However, all of these Departments have such a broad scope that EMS receives little, if any priority. The EMS program office in DOT / NHTSA appears to have the most prominent EMS role in the federal government, yet their involvement stems from the formative years when EMS was primarily linked to automobile crashes. They have made progress, but NHTSA's focus diverges from the evolution of EMS;


WHEREAS EMS needs an officially recognized seat at the table as first responder policy, funding, and operations are debated and charted at the federal level. To this end, EMS deserves an appropriate home in the federal government that is afforded to the other first responder constituencies;


WHEREAS the Austin-Travis County EMS Employee Association supports all objectives articulated by the GWU Homeland Security Policy Institute report, including but not limited to: the creation of a national EMS Administration, a national training academy, data collection and research. The Austin-Travis County EMS Employee Association strongly asserts that the USEMSA must not be assumed under USFA. Such a move may irrevocably subjugate EMS to the fire service in the eyes of providers, government and the public. EMS must have autonomy to effectively advance as a public safety and health care entity with the specific delivery model adoption at the local level remaining a local decision;


WHEREAS The Austin-Travis County EMS Employee Association believes the optimal solution to advance EMS in the United States and within the federal government, both from a policy and financial perspective, is to create a U.S. EMS Administration as a distinct component of the Department of Homeland Security;


THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that on June 9, 2005 the Austin-Travis County EMS Employee Association fervently endorses the concept of creating a United States Emergency Medical Service Administration to effectively support EMS and the protection of this nation.