E-R Doc talks about E-M-S training in Iowa

An emergency physician from Denver, Colorado was the keynote speaker at a leadership conference of Iowa Emergency Medical Service technicians today in Ames. Dr. Peter Pons says he’d like to see one national standard for training the men and women who’re E-M-S technicians.He says there are 40 different levels of training in the United States, so it’s hard to tell what the training in each state means. Pons says that could all be made simple with one educational course that teaches the same thing to everyone.He says there also needs to be research on how well each of the 40 systems work.He says all the training has been based on what happens in the hospital, and he says that may not be the best. Pons says there also hasn’t been much research in the best training for urban versus rural settings. In Denver, trips to the hospital from an accident scene average only about four minutes. In Iowa, that trip could be 30 minutes all the way up to two hours. Pons says the state organizations are going to have to take the lead in changing the system.Pons says Iowa has done a great job in setting up its system.