EMS News Archive

FICEMS Meets in Washington, DC

The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) attended the Federal Interagency Committee on Emergency Medical Services (FICEMS) meeting on December 3 in Washington, DC. FICEMS was founded in 2005 with the passage of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users to promote coordination between federal agencies that have a role in the emergency medical services and 9-1-1 systems.

The FICEMS Technical Working Group (TWG), which was created at the first meeting in 2006, includes five committees comprised of staff members from several federal agencies. The TWG and its committees meet on a monthly basis and report to the complete FICEMS group at their biannual meetings.

The Assessment Committee is overseeing a two-phased national EMS assessment, which will eventually be submitted to Congress after its completion and review. The Medical Oversight Committee was created to promote the development and implementation of evidence-based practice guidelines for prehospital care and is organizing a national conference of stakeholders to develop consensus-based recommendations. The 9-1-1/Medical Communications Committee is working to advance cooperation among federal agencies in order to optimize emergency communication between stakeholders to support and improve the interaction of all components of the EMS system.

The Preparedness Committee is working to ensure that EMS resources are effectively and appropriately dispatched to provide prehospital triage, treatment, transport, tracking of patients, and documentation of care appropriate for a disaster. A state-by-state capabilities assessment is ongoing at this time. Finally, the Data and Research Committee has been working on a two-year work plan to coordinate a collaborative research agenda to enhance the environment for EMS research.

Aside from the various committee reports, the group heard from Michael Stern, the new EMS Training Specialist at the United States Fire Administration (USFA). Stern offered an overview of the EMS provision within USFA’s Reauthorization. The provision expanded the Fire Administrator’s coordination responsibilities to “provide liaison to assure coordination related to EMS provided by fire service-based systems with federal, state, and local government agencies and nongovernmental organizations” and other EMS entities. It also “authorizes the Administrator to conduct studies of the operations and management aspects of fire service-based EMS and coordination between EMS and fire services.” The NVFC supported the provision and was pleased to see its inclusion in the Reauthorization.

Stern also discussed upcoming modifications at the National Fire Academy to elevate nationwide EMS education. A steering committee composed of EMS leaders has been tasked with identifying needed courses and developing a national-level curriculum. Furthermore, Sterns addressed the efforts of the National EMS Management Degree Programs Committee to develop lower and upper-level curriculum for higher education based off of the model created by its fire science counterpart.

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