In these days of shrinking budgets, fewer volunteers, and intense competition, it’s almost heartwarming to see an organization step up to the plate and encourage local EMS systems to do so as well. With money on the table, Wellspan’s Pa. partnership to help secure emergency grants has put some skin in the game to improve the overall capacity of the regional EMS system.
Earlier this week, I commented on Rural/Metro’s decision to pull out from much of Indiana. I said it’s going to take both fiscal and operational ingenuity to make EMS systems work successfully today.
While changes in the reimbursement landscape are happening, they may be too slow or too small to compensate for the losses incurred daily by EMS systems throughout the nation. You can only tighten the belt so far without a loss in service.
It’ll be interesting to watch what happens here over the next year. It may portend things to come.
