numbers of acutely ill patients require transport, EMS providers must be reserved to fulfill their primary role of acute stabilization and transport. Retired healthcare providers or volunteers may need to support vaccination efforts in the absence of EMS. Pharmaceutical Distribution EMS providers operating under written EMS Subject Matter Expert Tip protocols and supervision routinely dispense a variety of pharmaceuticals to Discussions about rapid implementation of patients. In many states, EMS providers patient interventions will be more productive if healthcare coalitions and planning teams also can assist patients by administering prioritize the safety of healthcare drugs prescribed by the patients' responders, including EMS providers. A healthcare provider. During mass medical critical point to make is that those on which surge, communities may need to rapidly the burden of disaster response falls should dispense prophylactic medications to the be provided the supplies and equipment general public or to certain populations at necessary to protect themselves, before increased risk for illness (such as supplies are allocated to the general public. pregnant women, children, geriatric or Supplies and equipment could include disabled patients, or individuals living a vaccines, prophylactic medications, and PPE certain distance from a disaster site). needed to protect responders from illness and injury. Some disaster experts Experts recommend that communities limit recommend also prioritizing delivery to discussions on the role of EMS in responder's families to alleviate mental delivering patient interventions to tasks burden on responders and allow them to that can be performed within utilizing focus on their disaster response functions. existing EMS resources. For example, using EMS providers to deliver prophylactic pharmaceuticals to every home in a community (e.g., "postal service model") would take EMS providers away from vital treatment and transport functions. However, EMS personnel may be able to deliver prophylactic medications to family members or those living with a patient who is being treated by EMS (e.g., targeted antiviral prophylaxis). EMS experts recommend that healthcare coalitions share with EMS partners any existing plans for receiving, distributing, and dispensing SNS assets and plans for mass immunization or prophylaxis. When all partners are knowledgeable about current planning efforts, they can better discuss feasible options for EMS integration. Communities will need to examine the legal regulations governing prescriptive authority and EMS providers' license to dispense certain medications. Some disaster experts propose modifying requirements that each patient have an individual prescription to authorize the widespread administration of vaccines and drugs without prescriptions. (71)
numbers of acutely ill patients require transport, EMS providers must be reserved to fulfill their primary role of acute stabilization and transport. Retired healthcare providers or volunteers may need to support vaccination efforts in the absence of EMS. Pharmaceutical Distribution EMS Subject Matter Expert Tip Discussions about rapid implementation of patient interventions will be more productive if healthcare coalitions and planning teams prioritize the safety of healthcare responders, including EMS providers. A critical point to make is that those on which the burden of disaster response falls should be provided the supplies and equipment necessary to protect themselves, before supplies are allocated to the general public. Supplies and equipment could include vaccines, prophylactic medications, and PPE needed to protect responders from illness and injury. Some disaster experts recommend also prioritizing delivery to responder's families to alleviate mental burden on responders and allow them to focus on their disaster response functions. EMS providers operating under written protocols and supervision routinely dispense a variety of pharmaceuticals to patients. In many states, EMS providers also can assist patients by administering drugs prescribed by the patients' healthcare provider. During mass medical surge, communities may need to rapidly dispense prophylactic medications to the general public or to certain populations at increased risk for illness (such as pregnant women, children, geriatric or disabled patients, or individuals living a certain distance from a disaster site). Experts recommend that communities limit discussions on the role of EMS in delivering patient interventions to tasks that can be performed within utilizing existing EMS resources. For example, using EMS providers to deliver prophylactic pharmaceuticals to every home in a community (e.g., "postal service model") would take EMS providers away from vital treatment and transport functions. However, EMS personnel may be able to deliver prophylactic medications to family members or those living with a patient who is being treated by EMS (e.g., targeted antiviral prophylaxis). EMS experts recommend that healthcare coalitions share with EMS partners any existing plans for receiving, distributing, and dispensing SNS assets and plans for mass immunization or prophylaxis. When all partners are knowledgeable about current planning efforts, they can better discuss feasible options for EMS integration. Communities will need to examine the legal regulations governing prescriptive authority and EMS providers' license to dispense certain medications. Some disaster experts propose modifying requirements that each patient have an individual prescription to authorize the widespread administration of vaccines and drugs without prescriptions. (71)
ExpandingEMSSystem.docx