Growth and Sustainability of the U.S. Community Paramedic Workforce to Address Unmet Healthcare Needs
Description:
Community paramedicine (CP) uses an existing workforce—emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics—to provide multiple non-emergency services to facilitate patient access to the right care, in the right place, at the right time. CP is a relatively new role for out-of-hospital emergency medical services (EMS) personnel. In the nearly seven years since the development of a CP research agenda sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, numerous questions about the CP workforce remain unanswered. The number of EMS agencies with CP programs around the U.S. has expanded from over 100 in 2014 to over 200 in 2017. As with all of EMS and health care, the COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges for CP but also opportunities to provide new services aimed at keeping people safe in their homes to reduce use of health care facilities and potential risk of exposure to COVID-19. These developments call for a new national study to answer important questions about this EMS workforce model that is still novel and emerging: What roles are community paramedics filling in the healthcare system? How do EMS organizations successfully staff CP programs? Do CP programs support the Quadruple Aim as it relates to provider satisfaction, resilience, and safety? How are program leaders sustaining this model?
Lead Researcher: Davis Patterson, PhD
Contact Info: davisp@uw.edu
Funder:
HRSA: HWRC Allied Health
Status:
Complete
Publications/Presentations
| Authors | Title | Type | Date | Documents/Media |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pollack SW, Patterson D, van Eijk M, Stubbs B, Hanson C | “EMS Providers Are Masters of the Workaround”: The Emergency Medical Services and Community Paramedic Workforces Respond to COVID-19 | PRESENTATION | 06-15-2021 |