Getting rural EMS providers the training they need to enhance their skills and level of care has always been difficult. Faced with a looming crisis, Southern Tier Health Care System, a rural health care network funded by the New York State Charles B. Cook Office of Rural Health, convened a group of regional EMS medical directors, EMS educators and the leaders of regional EMS agencies to find a solution in January of 2013.
Working as a liaison with the New York Bureau of EMS, Southern Tier Health Care System secured permission to design a program that meets the needs of our rural area. Southern Tier Health Care System surveyed other programs that use distance-learning technology to train EMS providers to create a best-practices paramedic training program. The result was a plan to create a Regional Paramedic Program that used distance learning technology to allow this advance training in a rural community.
The Regional Paramedic Program was launched the first week of January 2014, less than a year after Southern Tier Health Care System hosted the planning meeting. This program would not have been possible unless everyone was willing to work together. The cooperation speaks volumes about how a rural community can work together and make the impossible, possible. The Regional Paramedic Program represents the Power of Rural message that National Rural Health Day was created to celebrate.
Working as a liaison with the New York Bureau of EMS, Southern Tier Health Care System secured permission to design a program that meets the needs of our rural area. Southern Tier Health Care System surveyed other programs that use distance-learning technology to train EMS providers to create a best-practices paramedic training program. The result was a plan to create a Regional Paramedic Program that used distance learning technology to allow this advance training in a rural community.
The Regional Paramedic Program was launched the first week of January 2014, less than a year after Southern Tier Health Care System hosted the planning meeting. This program would not have been possible unless everyone was willing to work together. The cooperation speaks volumes about how a rural community can work together and make the impossible, possible. The Regional Paramedic Program represents the Power of Rural message that National Rural Health Day was created to celebrate.