The Future of EMS

Kavsuvb

Kavsuvb

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If you had to predict, what the Future of EMS would look like in the year 2030, 2040 and 2050, what would EMS look like and what future technologies do you see coming down the road for EMS. Could you see UAV's being used in EMS. What about using Wearable devices to monitor critical patients and Curtain populations. What would the EMS profession look like in the year 2030, 2040 and 2050.
 
Honestly? I don't really care. I'm hoping by then I'll have enough socked away to retire from this field and never look back.

If I don't, I doubt I will directly be involved with EMS anymore. If I had to guess though: not much farther than we've come.

Cynical? Sure, but we can't even get a group of providers to agree on what's best for patients universally without their egos over "treatments" getting involved, so, yeah.
 
Maybe safer ambulances. More universal evidence based protocols. Wireless telemedicine.

It'll still be medically trained people picking up sick people and taking them somewhere.

That'll never change.
 
NomadicMedic said:
Maybe safer ambulances. More universal evidence based protocols.
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This is all one could really hope for. I would hope this would include a universal overhaul of airway management at the advanced field provider level as well.

More money's cool, too...
 
I am sure Tele-Medicine will make it's way to EMS at some point. You may have a PA/NP/MD evaluating and giving orders via video chat. Even many high level academic ICUs have Tele oversight now.
 
Apart from inevitable changes in technology, for example, I hear the Lifepak 18 is not too terribly far away, the basic principle of diagnosing a patient and working out how to most effectively and efficiently meet their healthcare needs will not change. Technology will just allow that to happen in a better way.

I can see in the not too distant future the Clinical Hub within Control being able to do video calls with people and do proper (virtual) face-to-face assessments so they can see the person, their environment, etc rather than just having to rely on a 150-year-old technology of voice calling. This might change how all triage is undertaken and even mean the end of AMPDS, however, probably not, or something in some other form will replace it.

The ambulance service firmly wants the future to be only sending an ambulance to somebody who really needs one and everybody else gets something different to better meet whatever healthcare needs they have. Technology will enable this to happen much better than it does at the moment.
 
I think pt profile will change. We'll see far fewer motor vehicle crashes with autonomous vehicles being the norm 99% of the time.

We may even have autonomous ambulances except for terminal guidance. Imagine your driver helps you attend for 95% of the transport!

We'll either see far less diabesity(tm) and its sequelae... or a lot more.
 
Summit said:
We'll either see far less diabesity(tm) and its sequelae... or a lot more.
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I haven't heard that term before, I like it!

Unless big food/the McMafia can find a way to ching, ching, cash in on plant-based diets; diabetes and obesity are here to stay.

Kale Pounder anybody?
 
I think by 2030 you will see more NP's and PA's out in the field. You'll see paramedics just simply be an extension of the NP/PA to the level of an RN. I believe by 2030 and beyond, the new standard of EMS care will be a NP/Paramedic team or PA/Paramedic team. I can see EMT's in the year 2030 getting reduced to the level of First responder because of the fact that Technology is making things very easy. I think over time, Telemedicine will shift the role of EMT's and Paramedics. That would mean that Medical care can be done by a Hospital or EMS Command center. I see the future where medical care can be done via skype or telemedicine. I also believe, over time, wearable technology can be used to help monitor curtain patient populations such as cardiac and diabetic patients and EMS being alerted to signs of medical change in those patient populations to intervene before it happens. Can you Imagine the Future where the Paramedic's only job is computer monitoring of a high risk patient population from a command center.
 
I'm sure we'll see more PA and NP in the field however you will continue to face the fact that they just can't see as many patients that way and it's better to have the ambulance bring people to a family practice office
 
I'm sure in the very near future between 2020 and 2030, we can see more NP's and PA's out in the field with Medic's. I think a Medic's role will be on par with an RN.
 
Kavsuvb said:
I'm sure in the very near future between 2020 and 2030, we can see more NP's and PA's out in the field with Medic's. I think a Medic's role will be on par with an RN.
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Why?
 
Summit said:
Why?
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It's because as technology advances and health care advances, I think we are seeing a trend where NP's and PA will be as common as medics in the field
 
Kavsuvb said:
I'm sure in the very near future between 2020 and 2030, we can see more NP's and PA's out in the field with Medic's. I think a Medic's role will be on par with an RN.
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2020? I think 2030 is a far fetched goal
 
I think you've got you head in the clouds, which is better than up your backside, but not by much.

Quite simply, insurance reimbursements are not going up, they're going down. Adding a statistically relevant number of mid level providers in field roles would be financially ruinous to any EMS organization. This isnt going ot change, at least not for the better and still remains the most significant reason why we aren't advancing as fast as we'd like. There simply isnt enough money coming out of the faucet to sustain a significant increase in the cost of doing business. Perhaps, maybe, possibly, some day, in a galaxy far far away, we'll see a jump in reimbursement when we finally bend the industry over and make an EMS degree a requirement for licensure; but to speculate that 10 or 20 or 50 years in the future you'll see a predominantly mid level/paramedic staffing configuration is preposterous.

If nothing else, its complete overkill. You dont need to be an NP to do my job. If we were to get into a serious full scale treat and release type of system, they would have value; but hauling nana from the manor to the ED as an NP? Who would take that job? Who's going to go through all that schooling to still have to get up at three am and stair chair a 300lb person down three flights because their cellulitis isnt getting better?

No sir, I think you're dead wrong.
 
Kavsuvb said:
It's because as technology advances and health care advances, I think we are seeing a trend where NP's and PA will be as common as medics in the field
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That is a complete non-answer. What does technology have to do with having PAs and NPs being more prevalent in the field?
 
If things continue along today's same trend, there won't be enough mid levels to staff the current positions, never mind putting them in the field on an ambulance.

I think we'd be more likely to see a degreed paramedic with some form of independent practice then we would be to see a mid-level NP or PA on an ambulance.
 
NomadicMedic said:
If things continue along today's same trend, there won't be enough mid levels to staff the current positions, never mind putting them in the field on an ambulance.

I think we'd be more likely to see a degreed paramedic with some form of independent practice then we would be to see a mid-level NP or PA on an ambulance.
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If a independent practitioner paramedic existed and it was on par with PA/NP, why wouldn't they just become a PA/NP as those are far more versatile? If it had the same latitude/portability, why would the program need to be created in the first place? Unless it had standards vastly lower than PA/NP, in which case, why would independent practice be granted?
 
Summit said:
If a independent practitioner paramedic existed and it was on par with PA/NP, why wouldn't they just become a PA/NP as those are far more versatile? If it had the same latitude/portability, why would the program need to be created in the first place? Unless it had standards vastly lower than PA/NP, in which case, why would independent practice be granted?
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It wouldn't be on par with an NP/PA. It would still be a prehospital position. The UKs Advanced Paramedic is what I envision.
 
NomadicMedic said:
It wouldn't be on par with an NP/PA. It would still be a prehospital position. The UKs Advanced Paramedic is what I envision.
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That'd still be a masters-level clinician (pg. 19) practicing more or less autonomously, no? In my mind, it's not that different.
 
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