EMS PANDEMIC RESPONSE IN THE UNITED STATES

ABSTRACT

The novel Coronavirus disease of 2019 had an acutely catastrophic effect on almost every tier of emergency medical services in the United States. The Pro Bono EMS Pandemic Response Research Lab led the national effort into the investigation of prehospital pandemic response in the US mainland, interrogating key systemic issues, infectious disease best practices, and provider safety. This chapter - led by Adj. Prof. Christian Ventura, the Co-Principal Investigator of the lab and adjunct lecturer in prehospital resuscitation science and colleagues - serves as a retrospective analysis into how EMS responded to the global pandemic in the critical year of 2020, what we did right, what we can learn, and implications for the urgently warranted paradigm shifts EMS must consider adopting to prevent infrastructural collapse. © 2021 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.