Public money can significantly improve the performance of emergency medical services by investing more in preventive care, Eric Yazel, MD, chief medical director for Indiana Emergency Medical Services, said in a March 6 editorial.
Writing in the Indiana Capital Chronicle, Dr. Yazel said that emergency services in the Hoosier state have not been able to offer the services they want to over many years because of chronic underfunding and too much patient demand. If more resources were spent on preventive care, it could free up time and money for such emergency services to deal with possibly fewer acute care cases.
A proposed $243 million series of recommendations from the Governor's Public Health Commission plus Gov. Eric Holcomb's request for more than $300 million across the next two years to create and sustain vital services were very welcome, Dr. Yazel said.
"For the first time in a long time, I'm excited about the future of public health and EMS because of the transformational recommendations posed by the Governor's Public Health Commission," Dr. Yazel wrote. "The recommendations also include a call to fund them, which Gov. Eric Holcomb has made a prominent feature in his budget recommendations in this legislative session."
Indiana's health system was concluded in a 2020 report to be "chronically underfunded and undervalued." The state ranks 48th in the nation for public health funding, spending approximately $55 per person on public health initiatives, or $36 less than the nationwide average of $91 per capita, the report said.
It isn't that emergency services personnel don't want to do the best job they can to help people in need; the problem is they are simply unable to with the funding available while facing excessive demand, Dr. Yazel said.
"They want to continue to answer the calling in public health, and it is time the state provides the resources they need to serve such a noble cause," he said. "The health and livelihood of our state depend on it."