5 Causes of High Injury Rate in EMS Providers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Konda S ; Marsh, Suzanne M. ; Reichard AA ; Wijetunge GU
• Description:
  NIOSH and NHTSA collaborated to use emergency department visit data to identify the five primary types of injury events experienced by EMS providers. EMS personnel experience injuries at a higher rate than workers in many other occupations. In addition to suffering the immediate pain of an injury, personnel may lose time at work and be forced to limit activities outside of work. Injuries with long-term effects, such as chronic pain or physical disability, can have more serious impacts on the worker. These impacts can include wage or job loss, strains on relationships with family and friends and psychological issues such as depression or anxiety. Beyond the effects faced by the injured worker themselves, the workforce can suffer from decreased productivity, inadequate staffing levels and other increased costs. With the Occupational Outlook Handbook projecting that the demand for EMTs and paramedics will increase 24 percent from 2014-2024, it is vital that injuries to workers be prevented to protect and preserve the workers and the workforce. However, you can't prevent what you don't understand. Therefore, the first step in being able to prevent injuries is to know how many there are and what is causing them. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Emergency Medical Services joined forces with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in an effort to understand work-related injuries occurring to EMS personnel. They interviewed a sample of EMS personnel treated in emergency departments for work-related injuries during a four-year period (July 2010 through June 2014). These injuries included exposures to harmful substances. The data were weighted in order to produce national estimates of the number of EMS personnel treated in EDs for work-related injuries. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Emergency Responders Environmental Exposure Men Mental Health Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Women
• Keywords:
  Emergency Responders Exposure Levels First Responders Hazards Humans Injuries Physiological Effects Physiological Stress Psychological Effects Psychological Stress Risk Factors Surveillance

  More +
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Newsletter
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-7
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20050962
• Citation:
  Paramedic Chief 2017 Nov; :1-7
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2018
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Paramedic Chief
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d3f19e9ffad2b6b58d69c4ecd4b0a15ad2eb16bd9c25596450017b1031f25047420c06c66cc791b403bbc3b0879b5bfee0ac3d5e7fa60cfb29dd8c74019542c7
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/211136/cdc_211136_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 240.49 KB ]