Emergency Medical Services (EMS) providers play a vital role in saving lives in emergencies, pre-hospital triage, field treatment, and critical care transport. In the past, though, their role in primary injury prevention had been limited and fragmented. However, it is recognized that their expertise and authenticity in seeing and treating injuries firsthand enables EMS providers to contribute immensely to the prevention of such injuries, and thus, to assume a greater role in the area of primary injury prevention. Therefore, to support this effort, the Injury Prevention and Control Program (IPCP) received funding from an Emergency Medical Services for Children Partnership Grant to integrate primary injury prevention programs and services into the EMS system statewide.
Since its inception in 1999, the grant has expanded injury prevention activities on O‘ahu and the neighbor islands by developing the leadership and competence of EMS providers to address injury prevention, in collaboration with others in the community.
Furthermore, the grant has developed and expanded the role of EMS providers as "EMS, the Medical Home for Injury Prevention" in the community by recruiting and training expert personnel on all islands to conduct community and school education programs, such as car seat and bicycle safety, and advocacy activities. The "Community Injury Prevention Response," a quarterly newsletter that is produced and distributed by the Emergency Medical Services and Injury Prevention (EMSIP) program, highlights the injury prevention efforts initiated by or involving EMS personnel.
EMS personnel are people dedicated to saving lives and keeping their communities safe. The IPCP is dedicated to supporting them in this mission.
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