Feasibility for an EMS Workforce Safety and Health Surveillance System

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel treat an estimated 22 million patients a year in the United States. Estimates have placed the EMS workforce at around 900,000 workers, but the precise number is unknown because EMS workers include career and volunteer EMTs, firefighters who have been cross-trained in EMS, commercial ambulance services, third-service public utilities, and others. While the uncertain dimensions of the EMS workforce contribute to the difficulty of conducting adequate surveillance to understand the extent of occupational injury and illness, studies to date have identified EMS workforce occupational injury and fatality rates that greatly exceed the national average for all industries. The goal of this project was to examine the feasibility of creating such a surveillance system. This report is a qualitative study and presents the findings of a consensus process that resulted in an agreement of EMS and data system stakeholders on the utility of existing data systems, and a set of elements and characteristics of the surveillance system. The report also contains a literature review of EMS workforce illness and injury. The EMS Consensus Panel determined that no single data system exists in the United States today that alone can serve as a surveillance data source for EMS workforce illness and injury. The EMS Consensus Panel also concluded that a comprehensive surveillance program should rely upon an integration of data systems to accomplish the goal of conducting EMS workforce illness and injury surveillance.

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• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/16245
• Corporate Authors:

  Bedford Research

  11 Davis Road
  Bedford, MA  United States  01730-1597

  Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation

  11720 Beltsville Drive, Suite 900
  Calverton, MD  United States  20705-3102

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Becker, Les R
  • Spicer, Rebecca
• Publication Date: 2007-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 80p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Data analysis; Data collection; Databases; Emergency medical services; Emergency medical technicians; Fatalities; Feasibility analysis; Health; Injuries; Labor force; Literature reviews; Monitoring; Occupational diseases; Personnel; Safety
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; Society; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning; I84: Personal Injuries;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01054056
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-810 756
• Contract Numbers: DTNH22-05-D-25043
• Files: HSL, NTL, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Jul 5 2007 3:49PM