PC EMTs working to become essential service

In the United States, only 11 states have made Emergency Medical Services an essential service. In coordination with Emergency Medical providers across the state, Phillips County EMT Coordinator Rhei Tharp is working to change this in Montana.

All EMS personnel are licensed by their respective states, and report to a Board of Medical Examiners made up of medical professionals. EMR’s, EMTs, AEMTs, and Paramedics make up this system of prehospital care. EMS services throughout the state of Montana are either a paid service, volunteer service, or a little bit of both.

Montana is 147,040 square miles, with only about 270 EMS ambulance services to provide prehospital care to the great people of this state. Montanan’s on average need an ambulance twice in their life which may not sound like a lot, but the state of Montana has 1.069 million people. Across the state paid and volunteer services are running into the same problems whether it is funding to keep the doors open, people to run on those services, or keeping updated equipment on hand to help save lives.

During this Pandemic, we have learned what jobs are, and are not truly essential. An essential service refers to a class of occupations that have been legislated by a government to have special restrictions regarding labor actions, and are vital to the health, and welfare of a population and therefore must be maintained. Every county in the state of Montana is required to have a Law enforcement department whether it be local police, or county sheriffs, and a fire department. They are not required to have an EMS service.

Making EMS essential is not just putting the title about the name. It is making sure every Montanan has access to prehospital care. This would require adequate annual funding for all services across the state so that these existing ambulance services could provide care for their coverage area. Montanans on average need an ambulance twice in their life which may not sound like a lot, but the state of Montana has 1.069 million people. The Montanan people are and will suffer greatly as many of these services close, or are unable to function in their full capacity.

Making EMS essential will help sustain a long-term plan for the services to maintain trained staff to run, proper equipment, and supplies to provide optimal care. The state of Montana’s budget for every year is divided up to fund the essential services such as law enforcement and fire departments around the state. Montana’s Governor and legislature need to allocate the funds that can be used to make EMS essential.

All county residents are encouraged to reach out to their representatives to show their support of making emergency services a designated and funded essential service in Montana.