Survey: Don`t Change Our Name
The future of EMS may entail more preventive and follow-up “community paramedicine”-type care. Its name should still emphasize its response to emergencies.
That’s the gist of four months of survey data collected toward the end of proposing a new moniker for our profession that better reflects its expanding role and place in the healthcare continuum. Advocates of a new, broader term have offered descriptors like community paramedic services or mobile integrated healthcare practice, and at least one leading service, Ft. Worth’s MedStar, proactively retitled itself from EMS to Mobile Healthcare.
But more than half of the 500+ respondents to an EMS World survey favored one of two naming options that retained an emergency component: A plurality, 33.8%, preferred keeping emergency medical services, while another 20.5% liked mobile healthcare and emergency services.
Only one other possibility, community paramedic services, drew more than 10% support; it garnered 10.7% of votes.
In descending order, the less popular choices were:
Mobile medical services and out-of-hospital medical services, 5.2% each;
Mobile healthcare services, 3.8%;
Mobile integrated healthcare, 3.2%;
Mobile patient care, 2.8%;
Mobile integrated healthcare practice, 2.4%;
Mobile healthcare and regional medical services, 2% each.
Around 8.6% of respondents favored some other title not included.
Ed's Note: Continue the dialogue at EMS World Expo. Medstar's Matt Zavadsky is a featured speaker at EMS World Expo 2013 in Las Vegas, NV, September 8–12, and will lead the 1-day Mobile Integrated Healthcare Summit scheduled for September 11. Click here for more information.
