Emergency Medical Services, known as EMS, are services providing out-of-hospital acute care and transport. The goal is to satisfactorily treat a person's ailment on the spot or get the patient to the hospital for extensive care. Some of the other names for this are: First Aid Squad, Emergency Squad, Rescue Squad, Ambulance Squad, Ambulance Service, Ambulance Corps, or Life Squad. The name and the type of services are decided by each location. Fire departments, regional fire service authorities, fire districts, public hospital districts, and private ambulance services can be the providers of these services. In some areas, charities or non-profit organizations also provide Emergency Medical Services.
Early detection, early reporting, early response, good on-scene care, care in transit, and transfer to definitive care are the six stages of high quality pre-hospital care. These are the reasons Emergency Medical Services have come into being. Training and levels of members of these medical services vary from location to location. Job titles for EMS workers include Emergency Medical Technician, Ambulance Technician, and Paramedic. The levels of care go from basic CPR and use of an AED to paramedics that use critical care and life support devices. EMS units in some areas can handle water rescue, search and rescue, and also extrication.
With the increase of the aging population, closing of some hospitals and early discharge of patients from hospitals, EMS has been in great demand. Rural and frontier areas are very reliant on them. EMS can provide different types of non-urgent health services, even primary care. These rural Emergency Medical Services are staffed by volunteer personnel that usually work other full time jobs.
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