EMS earns accreditation

By Charles Sowell  

JANUARY 12, 2012 11:31 a.m. (0)

Greenville County EMS’s recent accreditation of excellence from the International Academies of Medical Dispatch is the first major step in a plan that could see emergency medical services forever changed in Greenville, John Zaragoza, EMS director, said last week.

Zaragoza said a beefed up EMS dispatch system, along with some structural changes within the department, will play a crucial role in changing the agency’s role to a more proactive one by 2014, when the National Health Care Act’s provisions will largely be in place.

“No matter what you think of the act, one thing medical professionals all over the country have seized upon is preventative, proactive treatment,” Zaragoza said. “With this accreditation, we’ll be in a position to implement a far more aggressive program when dealing with non life threatening situations.”

The accreditation is a first for any South Carolina EMS, and it puts Greenville County in a field that includes London, San Francisco, Hong Kong, San Diego and other major world cities.

But it is also a means to an end, Zaragoza said, a necessary step toward making the county’s EMS fleet and first responders a much more flexible and proactive organization.

“We hope, by summer, to have a new program online here that will allow us to have more options in taking care of patients,” he said. “We’d like to do more than just transport patients to the emergency room. We hope to be able (in some instances) to take non-critical patients threatening calls to exigent medical centers, or even a family doctor.”

The details of working out this new system are still being processed, Zaragoza said. Some of the changes would require legislative action; others would include having nurses located in the dispatch center.

When a call comes in to dispatch, operators quiz the caller about the patient’s condition using a computerized system that analyzes the data. By the time the ambulance and first responders (usually fire district personnel) roll, they know how critical the call might be, Zaragoza said.

Under the system being contemplated, paramedics would better be able to determine the nature of the problem with the patient and have more options than just a run to the emergency room.

“Non-compliance is the biggest issue with recurrent visits to the emergency room,” Zaragoza said. “For instance a diabetic who doesn’t take their medicine as prescribed or who refuses to follow a sensible diet.”

Cutting down on repeat callers will mean a savings overall in medical treatment costs, Zaragoza said. Proactive treatment by all levels of the medical establishment means a healthier population overall without having to rely on emergency rooms as the doctors of last resort.