Improve firefighter safety and health by: increasing the recognition and acceptance of certification of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) responders on incidents from state to state.
1. Governors and state wildland fire authorities for state and private lands will actively support the National Association of State Emergency Medical Services Officials (NASEMSO) in their current project to create a national interstate compact to recognize EMS licenses/qualifications across state lines.
2. All stakeholder affiliations in the WFLC will actively support efforts for Emergency Medical Service (EMS) authorities to address barriers to EMA personnel working across state lines.
Short Term (0-2 years)
Other collaborators: State OEM leads, NASF, IAFF, IAWF Supplemental info: The states' EMS offices have the exclusive authority to license EMS personnel to practice in their respective states. This means there is no true reciprocity between states for EMS providers. The situation of firefighters with EMS licenses dispatched to another state and not being able to legally practice their EMS skills poses significant safety and health risks for personnel on fires. Having EMS responders that are part of the fire crew being able to perform to their scope of practice can be a critical factor in patient outcome. the NASEMSO is currently addressing this issue by looking at barriers facing EMS providers when crossing state lines, and developing possible mitigations to those barriers. .The collaborators can support the efforts to address these issues at the national and state level.
