2017 EMS Trend Report: The Forces Shaping the Future of EMS

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In its second year, the EMS Trend Report describes revealing changes in clinical care, finance and the use of technology in EMS

By Fitch & Associates

To an outsider, EMS probably looks pretty similar today to how it did decades ago. Call 911, and an ambulance arrives and takes you to the hospital – simple. Yet we know that while progress can sometimes feel slow, in other ways the profession might be going through its most transformative era.

Whether it’s a call to change “EMS” to “paramedicine,” a push to reform reimbursement models or the increasing use of data and information technology, the industry will be making decisions in the next few years that might significantly impact how patients are treated and what it’s like to be an EMS provider in the future. The 2017 EMS Trend Report reveals the current state of the profession and where we are headed. Now in its second year, the report is based on an extensive survey of the EMS Trend Report Cohort – nearly 100 EMS agencies of different sizes and service models across the United States. The long-term goal of the EMS Trend Report is to monitor movement on key clinical, operational and administrative dimensions among a select group of representative EMS agencies over a multi-year period. In future years, the EMS Trend Report will have even more value in describing how the profession is evolving over time. But now, in its second year, the 2017 EMS Trend Report can for the first time describe some revealing changes in areas such as clinical care, finance and the use of technology.