“EMS organizations should act within the communities’ best interest”, Anthony Correia writes in the commentary below.
Below is the link to a short article I wrote for JEMS related to an EMS agency’s relationship with its community. Go check it out, then share your perspective.
JEMS Link: https://www.jems.com/commentary/heal-people-not-patients/
In Dr. Jonathan Weinkle’s book, “Healing People, Not Patients,” he shares this innovation: “One Oregon physician, Pamela Wible, started her ideal medical practice by putting the patients completely in charge. She held a town hall meeting where she said, ‘Write my job description. I want to be your doctor. I wanna work for you.’ Once they were done designing the doctor, they designed the clinic and the way it ran. Wible’s mission in her clinic? To humanize medicine, both for the patients, and for herself, a once-burnt-out physician, whose own advocacy centers around preventing physician suicides.”
What a concept. Why shouldn’t Mobile Medicine (EMS) be doing this? Why not hold town halls in their communities? Have these “EMS” organizations describe the services they now provide and the challenges they have and ask those they serve what they want from “their” prehospital care organization?
A previous related article JEMS: Patch Adams and EMS: Patients are People Too
EMS, Fire, Police, Public Works, etc., in most communities, is not a choice. You get what the government entities give you. We who provide these services are supposed to act within the communities’ best interest, but do we? We in emergency services don’t have all the answers and should not be so ignorant to think we do. In addition, you should want your communities’ support. You should want your “patients” to be partners in their healthcare decisions; if they are, they are more likely to take ownership of their health. Isn’t it our job to be part of creating healthy communities?
Most likely, our constituent’s response will have perspectives we are not going to like or agree with. They might also have a different take on what services we should provide and how we provide them. Ultimately, we are not the arbiters of the communities’ expectations; the people in them are. Around the country, many EMS services are imploding. Most of the time, it is because the current model is not sustainable in those communities, but we continue to force that model.
A few services have morphed into Mobile Integrated Care and are developing a sustainable model. I suspect many have done some community assessment that helped them understand developing the model of their services. As a taxpayer in my community, as well as an EMS provider, I say it’s time to make bold moves like Dr. Wimble did in her practice in Oregon.
TonyECorreia 