Recently Governor Cuomo made his proposal for the 2012-2013 fiscal year in New York State. Amongst his recommendations is the merger of governmental entities to streamline government operations. In the Article VII proposal is a rewriting of New York State Public Health Law Article 30 that governs EMS in New York.
I spent the weekend reading it (it’s dry drool fodder) but some of the most notable changes I came across are:
- State EMS funds for training remains intact
- “Mutual Aid” is defined (it previously was not) as “means the pre-planned and organized response of emergency medical services, and other emergency personnel and equipment, to a request for assistance in an emergency when local resources have been expended. The response is predicated on formal agreements among participating agencies or jurisdictions.”
- The State Emergency Services Council (SEMSCO) is downsized and changed to an Advisory Board whose recommendations the Commissioner can accept, modify, or reject
- The 18 Regional Emergency Medical Services Councils (REMSCOs) are dissolved and reformed into 6 Regional Advisory Boards
- Only members of the Fire Department of New York City may participate in the 5-year CME recertification program
So what do you think of some of the changes? Good, bad, or indifferent?
Download the 2012 NYS Entities Merger – Article VII and give it a read for yourself. It is a 130 page document but the EMS portion begins on page 80
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Terrible! Why is FDNY so special? Why does the rest of NYS have to be jacked out of the 5-year program? It’s been a pilot program forever! Make it permanent! If the state wants to cut their input into EMS, let them! My job runs on NYC REMAC Protocols. Does that mean everytime I have to recertify my Paramedic card, I have to go to refresher? In the meantime, my volunteer fire department took the time to implement some CME online courses for our EMT’s? What’s his logic behind all of this? Is he trying to get rid of the bodies that govern NY’s immense system?
The FDNY five year certification exemption seems like a favor to someone, not something based on any real criteria. Why only FDNY and not any paramedic working in NYC?
This is going to be hard to judge as to it being beneficial or not. Although going to be streamlining the regional councils will progress the likely hood of more unified ALS protocol’s (or at least fewer variations; 6 vs 18) it has the potential to diminish represention of counties and the EMS systems within. With fewer spots being held for much greater geographical areas you will have seats deciding public need who are 70 miles away/ 3 counties away for a place who have no real clue. As a council member who has made these votes from 1 county away I feel even less knowledgeable if it were an hour away.
I wish the state would stop coddling FDNY. Why are they the only ones permitted to be on a 5 year plan? Wouldn’t putting everyone on a five year plan cut costs (less refresher courses for the state to fund, less man hours spent on paperwork processing, decreased mailings, etc)? What happened to Herkimer County, who also had agencies involved in the 5 year pilot program?
On the otherhand, I like the consolidation of regions. Hopefully it will allow more agencies and interested parties to participate in how EMS in their area instaed of the few large agencies that currently dominate several of the regions. Sadly, I still think we will remain under the influence of FDNY in NYC no matter what the state does.
I’d like to see the plan for consolidating the regions. What regions will be put together? What will happen with differing regional protocols?
I’d like to see some concrete justification for treating FDNY differently.