PRINCETON PACKET EDITORIAL
Governments at all levels are notoriously adept at identifying a pressing problem, creating a blue-ribbon commission, authorizing an exhaustive study, dutifully receiving a set of specific findings and recommendations — and promptly dropping the matter like a hot potato.
Then, they move on to the next problem, the next commission, the next study and the next opportunity to consign the findings and recommendations to a dusty library shelf, never to be heard from again.
But once in a great while, a problem comes along that’s too pressing to ignore. And a serious study produces a set of findings and recommendations that simply can’t be brushed under the rug.
The New Jersey Legislature has just received such a study. More than 18 months in the making, at a cost of nearly $300,000, this study concludes that the state’s emergency management services system is in a state of “near crisis,” with little or no state oversight, no uniform standards for training and growing manpower problems that threaten round-the-clock ambulance coverage in some areas.
Ordered by the Legislature, and prepared by an independent research firm under contract with the state Department of Health and Senior Services, the 171-page report released last week finds glaring inconsistencies in the level of service provided by EMS squads across New Jersey. Responding to more than 800,000 emergency calls each year, these squads are often short-staffed, ill-equipped and poorly trained, the study found.
The Health Department’s summary of the report’s findings warns that “the state will no longer be able to guarantee the responsive pre-hospital and trauma care necessary to avoid death or serious impairment and disability” unless immediate action is taken.
The recommended action, however, isn’t likely to be taken immediately. The report calls for an overhaul of the entire EMS system, including creation of a new state division to establish and enforce uniform training and performance standards for New Jersey’s 25,000 emergency management technicians and paramedics. It also suggests transferring EMS responsibilities from independent squads to cities and towns.
Both of these recommendations seem certain to generate controversy. For starters, many EMS personnel, both volunteers and professionals, won’t take kindly to the prospect of subjecting their training and performance to state control. Nor will many squads warm to the idea of having their operations taken over by municipalities. (For that matter, there may be any number of municipalities that won’t want the responsibility of taking over EMS operations — unless the state backs up this mandate with the funds to implement it.)
It is clear, however, that significant changes must be made in the way emergency medical services are delivered to New Jersey residents. As the state’s population ages, as traffic congestion worsens and travel times to hospitals lengthen, as fewer and fewer citizens volunteer to serve on EMS squads across the state, a critical component of the health care delivery system in New Jersey is plainly broken.
Fixing it will not be easy, nor will it happen overnight. But everyone has a stake in this — not just EMS personnel wary of state regulation and municipal oversight, but all the consumers and providers of health care in this, the nation’s second-wealthiest state, who have every right to expect prompt, efficient and effective delivery of emergency medical services. As the Legislature prepares to take the next steps in this process, it is up to all of us to make certain our voices are heard.
