Rural emergency medical services are in crisis

Emergency medical services in rural America are in a state of crisis. Difficulty recruiting emergency medical technicians and the financial constraints of EMS agencies are the major causes of this crisis.

Many rural areas are considered medically underserved, indicating too few primary care providers, high infant mortality, high poverty or a high elderly population. Most of the MUAs are also designated as rural or frontier, increasing the likelihood of prolonged transport times to hospital-based medical care. Rural and frontier MUAs are historically served by volunteer EMS services. For exampl...