Department of Public Safety
About the Profession
A SYSTEM TO SAVE A LIFE
More than 44,000 certified EMS professionals provide emergency medical care in Texas by working or volunteering for the 1,300 EMS systems in the state.
There are many types of EMS systems: fire department EMS systems; separate systems called third city service systems; volunteer EMS systems; city/county partnerships; privately-owned EMS services; county EMS departments; and first responder groups who treat the patient on scene until another service arrives to transport the patient.
No matter what type of system an area operates, EMS personnel must meet high standards for education and training, testing, and certification as EMS technicians. The EMS Act, a state law, requires that ambulances making emergency runs be inspected and licensed by the Texas Department of Health and staffed by at least two EMS-certified professionals.
But an EMS system is more than ambulances and EMS professionals. An EMS system includes EMS instructors, dispatchers, medical directors, emergency nurses, emergency flight crews and emergency physicians.
An EMS system also includes the technology used in the hospital, the emergency department, and diagnostic labs; at the colleges and universities teaching EMS courses; and in the dispatch and communications centers.
An EMS system includes law enforcement organizations, first responder groups, funding agencies, regulatory bodies and public education programs.
And, most of all, an EMS system includes you. EMS needs you to make the first emergency call that swings the components of an EMS system into action. Without that call, there is no EMS.
It’s a system to save a life.
Excerpted from A System to Save a Life—Emergency Medical Services in Texas, Texas Department of State Health Services
EMPLOYMENT PROJECTIONS
Statistics on employment, training and earnings can be found at the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
©2008 Del Mar College