The Pre-hospital Emergency Medical Services Workforce in Rural and Urban Areas
Description:
Rural populations frequently reside great distances from hospital emergency departments or urgent care facilities, underscoring the need for timely and effective pre-hospital emergency medical services (EMS). Numerous reports and anecdotal evidence indicate that rural EMS agencies face significant resource challenges in terms of sustainable funding, staff recruitment and retention, and staff skill maintenance. Reliable data to quantify the extent of these problems have been lacking. This project aims to quantify systematically workforce supply and demand disparities between rural and urban EMS systems in a sample of states distributed across the U.S. Study results will inform policy options to ensure an adequate supply of EMS personnel in rural areas. This study will analyze secondary data collected via a 2008 telephone survey of all ground-based pre-hospital EMS providers in nine states. Analyses of EMS agency service area coverage, patient volume, funding basis, organizational type, staffing, vacancies, and medical direction will yield statistical comparisons between urban and three subcategories of rural areas. Findings on rural-urban EMS resource distribution will also be displayed in maps for each state. Funded by HRSA’s Office of Rural Health Policy.
Status:
Complete
Publications/Presentations
| Authors | Title | Type | Date | Documents/Media |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patterson DG, Skillman SM, Fordyce MA | Prehospital emergency medical services personnel in rural areas: Results from a survey in nine states | PUBLICATION | 08-03-2015 | Final Report |
| Patterson DG, Fordyce MA, Skillman SM, Doescher MP | The pre-hospital emergency medical services workforce in rural areas: results from a survey in nine states | PRESENTATION | 05-09-2013 | |
| Patterson DG, Fordyce MA, Skillman SM, Doescher MP, Bolton PA, Williams I | The pre-hospital emergency medical services workforce in rural areas: results from a survey in nine states | PRESENTATION | 03-14-2012 |