Creating a People-Centered EMS

Now is the time for you to play a role in creating the people-centered EMS system vividly described in EMS Agenda 2050

It took two years and contributions from hundreds of EMS professionals and members of the public to craft the bold plan for EMS laid out in EMS Agenda 2050. But the hard work starts now as the EMS community shifts from describing the EMS system of the future to creating it.

Officially entitled “EMS Agenda 2050: A People Centered Vision for the Future of Emergency Medical Services,” the wide-reaching and ambitious agenda calls for EMS to be more integrated with the rest of the nation’s healthcare system and public safety partners and more evidence-based and data-driven, while never forgetting that people—those who serve and who are served—are at the center. EMS Agenda 2050 is driven by six guiding principles that should help guide activities and innovations at all levels, from those of individual EMS clinicians to local agencies, states and national organizations.

Earlier this year, several members of the panel that helped steer the project joined a webinar to share how they will implement the vision of EMS Agenda 2050 in their communities. The speakers included Ernie Rodriguez, chief of EMS for Austin-Travis County, Texas; Marianne Gausche-Hill, MD, EMS medical director for Los Angeles County, California; and Andy Gienapp, state EMS director in Wyoming. The webinar, part of the EMS Focus series produced by the Office of EMS, can be viewed on EMS.gov.

You can also visit EMS.gov to download and read EMS Agenda 2050 and other materials, including a one-page infographic that summarizes the vision and guiding principles and can be displayed in your station or office and used in presentations.

And if you’re attending any upcoming conferences, be sure to check out sessions on EMS Agenda 2050 and the implementation of the vision. Members of the project team will be speaking at EMS PRO in Connecticut, Fire-Rescue Med in Nevada, the Pinnacle EMS Leadership Forum in Florida and other national, state and regional conferences this year.