Posted on 11/13/2009 12:17:58 PM PST by Styria
This memorandum is to inform you that effective November 30, 2009 Susquehanna Regional Emergency Medical Services, Inc. (SREMS) will no longer be able to continue operations. We were notified our contract is currently pending Office of State Comptroller approval contingent upon New York State Division of Budget (DOB) allocating funds to support it. The Department of Health does not know when DOB will make funds available and SREMS was asked to forward a continuity of operations plan related to the effects of no funding. SREMS conducted a fiscal and operational analysis which concluded that SREMS’s Program Agency funds would be exhausted as of November 30, 2009. Therefore, as of that date, operations would cease. In consequence of the foregoing, the following impact on our region’s EMS system will result from this regrettable but unavoidable shut down:
If the financial crisis does indeed force SREMS to close, there exists the potential for a genuine public health crisis in our three-county region as a result of the loss of this administrative, technical, and Quality Improvement support. In the midst of the current influenza pandemic, which promises to place unprecedented strain upon our EMS system, this may well be a recipe for utter disaster.
SREMS oversees emergency medical services in three counties in Upstate New York. I don't know if other regions are facing this problem or if they were funded for a different time period.
Paper PCRs (pre-hospital care reports documenting calls): This is a state-level problem because New York wants standardized PCRs with unique identifiers (so it has to print them itself) and to be able to compile health statistics from them. New York is 5+ years behind on compiling these statistics anyway, which is why SREMS' computerized ePCR pilot program is so much better. But now New York can't even supply enough paper???
ALS: Advanced life support. The certification levels providing pre-hospital IV access, medications, EKGs, etc. It would suck to lose this, but at least the problem right now is no new providers rather than ceasing this service. (Credentialing means clearing someone with an ALS-level EMT certification to run calls on their own.)
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
toilet paper’s next
This is rank political pressure on the electorate for Obamacare.
Democrats do it all the time - the first things that run out of money when they want something passed are always emergency medical services, food for children, and keeping the schools open.
Scum.
You probably know more than I do.
Sounds like people better start organizing voluntary citizens groups to perform emergency services. In the absence of government services, citizens will have to step up to the plate.
Maybe, but this is an agency memo in a state that nobody doubted was going for Obama and not something that appeared in the newspaper.
But they knew it would get press, without much resistence from the population.
I just don't believe that, of all the things that might have to shut down, emergency medical services would be allowed to do so without careful political purpose - especially with Obamacare in the Senate. It doesn't pass the smell test, and as I mentioned, Rats use this gimmick a lot anyway. Just sayin.
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