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Resources by Topic: Emergency medical services

Crisis Services: Meeting Needs, Saving Lives
Presents the National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care Best Practices Toolkit and a number of companion papers on crisis care. Toolkit highlights best practices for crisis care and the papers discuss a number of related topics, including homelessness, substance use, opioid-related deaths, and rural and frontier areas, among other issues.
Date: 08/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
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Strategies for the Delivery of Behavioral Health Crisis Services in Rural and Frontier Areas of the U.S.
Report highlights the challenges of providing behavioral health crisis services to rural and frontier communities. Details the barriers to crisis service delivery such as lack of transportation, travel distance, and broadband access, among others. Includes a discussion on the effect of COVID-19 pandemic rural crisis service delivery.
Author(s): Kristin A. Neylon
Date: 08/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
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Rural EMS COVID-19 Preparedness Checklist
Provides a checklist for rural response agencies to evaluate their current level of preparedness and identify areas that need additional action to better respond to COVID-19. Covers planning, strategy, personal protective equipment and supplies, workforce and recruiting, and funding.
Date: 08/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: American Ambulance Association, Federal Healthcare Resilience Working Group
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Rural Healthcare Surge Readiness
Resources for rural healthcare systems preparing for and responding to a COVID-19 surge. Includes resources for emergency medical services, inpatient and hospital care, ambulatory care, and long-term care settings. Addresses a wide range of topics including healthcare operations, space, supplies, funding, and more.
Date: 07/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: COVID-19 Healthcare Resilience Working Group
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COVID-19 and Rural EMS
Webinar presented July 7, 2020, describing ways in which the pandemic is affecting rural emergency medical services (EMS). Explores adjustments being made by rural ambulance services, examines innovations related to EMS COVID-19 response, and lists resources available to rural EMS and ways that Flex Programs can support these services.
Date: 07/2020
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organization: National Rural Health Resource Center
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Out‐of‐Network Air Ambulance Bills: Prevalence, Magnitude, and Policy Solutions
Examines the prevalence and cost of surprise air ambulance bills among privately insured patients. Describes air ambulance rates for commercial payers in relation to Medicare rates. Compares the number of air ambulance claims from urban and rural locations. Offers policy solutions to address surprise and out-of-network bills for these services.
Author(s): Erin C. Fuse Brown, Erin Trish, Bich Ly, Mark Hall, Loren Adler
Citation: Milbank Quarterly
Date: 06/2020
Type: Document
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2020 National Emergency Medical Services Assessment
Describes emergency medical services (EMS), EMS emergency preparedness, and 9-1-1 systems at the state and national levels, using data from a survey completed by representatives of 54 states and U.S. territories. Features statistics in categories including EMS organizations, response and patient care, workforce health and safety, disaster preparedness, and funding, including funding provided by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy.
Date: 05/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Association of State EMS Officials
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The Effect of Rural Hospital Closures on Emergency Medical Service Response and Transport Times
Examines ways in which rural hospital closures affect EMS response time, transport time, and total activation time, using data from 2010-2016. Features statistics comparing rates prior to rural hospital closure and immediately post-closure.
Author(s): Katherine E.M. Miller, Hailey J. James, George Mark Holmes, Courtney H. Van Houtven
Citation: Health Services Research, 55(2), 288-300
Date: 04/2020
Type: Document
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Exploring State Data Sources to Monitor Rural Emergency Medical Services Performance Improvement
Examines potential sources of data that State Flex Programs (SFPs) could utilize to analyze and improve rural emergency medical services (EMS). Discusses challenges facing rural EMS systems and the assessment of these systems by SFPs. Explores how SFPs can support rural EMS data collection initiatives.
Author(s): John Gale, Karen Pearson, Yvonne Jonk
Date: 03/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Flex Monitoring Team
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The Exchange Feature Issue: Preparing for and Responding to Wildfires and Planned Outages
Newsletter issue focusing on lessons learned by medical facilities and communities in Colorado and California during the wildfires of 2017 and 2019. Covers information useful for rural hospital emergency managers and administration, including mass sheltering, hospital evacuation, managing stress and compassion fatigue among workers, and community recovery.
Citation: Issue 10
Date: 03/2020
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response
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