EMERGENCY CARE: 23 EMS Agencies Receive Federal Grants
Gov. Pete Wilson yesterday announced that $1.6 million has been awarded to 23 Emergency Medical Service Agencies that provide 45 California counties with research, trauma, emergency medical services, EMS for adults and children, disaster, data collection, communication and injury prevention projects. "When Californians need emergency medical services, we cannot just assume that they will be available," Wilson said. "An efficient and effective system that provides high quality care doesn't just happen on its own. It is the product of planning and research, with delivery by skilled, dedicated people," he said. Wilson added that the funding will be "especially beneficial to rural counties that may be unable to take on special projects or fund needed system improvements otherwise." The federal Preventive Health and Human Services funds are block granted to the California Emergency Medical Services Authority, which conducts a competitive bidding process to determine the awards. Richard Watson, interim director for the authority, said, "The impact of these projects reaches far beyond the individual counties that receive the funds. Planning and research can open the door to new techniques and better systems procedures which could mean the difference between life and death." Past grants have been used to develop of prehospital data analysis and management systems, to increase prehospital providers' roles in injury prevention, develop a statewide quality improvement plan, regional disaster planning to coordinate health and medical responses of disasters within certain vulnerable areas, and to fund a Trauma Registry. (release, 5/26).
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