EMS Labor Alliance Endorses Department of Homeland Security EMS Agency


The EMS Labor Alliance (EMSLA) Board of Directors voted to endorse the initiative to create the U.S. EMS Administration within the Department of Homeland Security. This endorsement comes after careful consideration of the report released by the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute, and New York University’s Center for Catastrophe Preparedness.

EMSLA (formerly NEEON) is an information-sharing network comprised of labor organizations that represent EMS professionals for collective bargaining of compensation and conditions of employment throughout the United States. EMSLA also serves as an advocacy group for EMS providers. The member organizations of EMSLA represent EMS professionals whose primary responsibility is EMS.

The Department of Transportation did a good job during the early years of EMS. Since then EMS has evolved in many directions, as has federal involvement in EMS. EMS is now provided across the country in many different system configurations through a myriad of delivery models. Federal oversight and funding is provided by several different federal agencies (DOT/NHTSA, HHS, FEMA) that report to different cabinet offices. The result is disorganization, lack of clear leadership, inadequate funding, and politically motivated struggles to control EMS oversight and funding. Federal oversight for EMS has become so dysfunctional that it has been suggested by some that a Federal Interagency Committee on EMS (FICEMS) be formed to coordinate EMS activity at the federal level. In the absence of other alternatives this may appear to make sense, but leadership by committee is rarely effective.

The EMS Agenda for the Future, published by the NHTSA / DOT in 1996 citing a paucity of EMS related research and the absence of a national EMS data collection center, called for improvements in EMS research and data collection, analysis, and information sharing. Under the current multi-agency federal EMS oversight “system” little has been accomplished in this area. The creation of an EMS research center within the USEMSA would make achieving these goals possible.

The EMSLA believes that a single agency can best provide the coordination and leadership that EMS needs. Given the reality of today’s world and the ever-present threat of terrorist attack it makes sense for the DHS to be that agency. While it is true that preparedness for the threat of terrorist attack is only one facet of EMS’s local responsibility, it is also true that preparedness for a terrorist incident also prepares EMS agencies for any large-scale disaster or multiple casualty incidents, and helps maintain the infrastructure necessary for day-to-day EMS operations.
###

EMSLA MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS ARE:

• The EMS Division of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association - IUPA
• Cleveland Area Rescue Employees - IUPA
• EMT Association of Detroit Fire Department - IUOE
• Denver Paramedics - IAFF
• International Association of EMT's and Paramedics - IAEP
• DC 37 Local 2507 NYC (Uniformed EMT's & Paramedics EMS/FDNY) - AFSCME
• New Castle County (DE) EMS Employees - AFSCME
• Fraternal Association of Pittsburgh Paramedics - IUPA
• Paramedic Unit of SEIU Local 790 (San Francisco Fire Paramedics)


CONTACT: KEVIN CRANE
EMS Labor Alliance
2092 State Rd
Plymouth, MA 02360
508 524 2721