ST. PAUL – Rep. Dan Schoen (DFL-St. Paul Park) introduced House File 1967, the Level of Readiness Trauma Hospital and EMS Initiative, which will improve trauma and EMS care throughout the state of Minnesota by investing in our trauma and EMS care, coordination and training infrastructure.
“In their latest state-by-state report card on emergency care environment, the American College of Emergency Physicians gave Minnesota a C,” Rep. Schoen said. “This is one area in which an average grade is not good enough. We’re ranked 12th in the nation, but we can do better.”
The ACEP gave Minnesota a D in the area of Quality and Patient Safety. It stated that a lack of statewide policies and procedures for enhancing emergency medical services (EMS) systems is hurting the state’s standing.
Schoen’s bill will invest in trauma and EMS care, coordination and training infrastructure. Trauma hospitals, along with air and ground ambulance operations, have an inherent cost to maintain a 24-hour level of readiness.
Trauma centers and the EMS infrastructure are resource intensive and are faced with the competing pressures of shrinking resources and increasing demands. Since nearly 60 percent of all trauma cases are the result of automobile accidents, this legislation would support the trauma and EMS level of readiness with an investment of less than a dollar a month on your auto insurance policy, paying dividends for all emergency patients for years to come.
“If you live in Greater Minnesota, we need to make sure you have the ability to get quick access to health care,” Rep. Schoen said. “We really want to make sure we don’t lose these small town ambulance services that are losing money every day due to reimbursement rates. We want to make sure that we have helicopters available when we need to transfer people to a greater level of trauma care.
“We need to make sure than when people do need trauma care, they get the best care possible – that we’re being innovative, that we have our network of trauma care built up to the point that wherever an accident occurs, our professionals can get the victims to the appropriate place in the quickest fashion possible.”
Many states have either and alcohol tax or a funding source for trauma like an assessment. The funding collected from this assessment would go into a special revenue fund at Minnesota Department of Human Services and is divided using the following formula:
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75 percent divided annually to all designated trauma hospitals in Minnesota based off of the number of trauma patients with an injury severity score greater than 8.
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15 percent divided annually to all Minnesota licensed ambulance providers based off of the trauma patients transported with a Glasgow coma scale score of 7 or below.
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5 percent divided annually between the 8 Regional EMS programs designated in law and recognized by the Minnesota Emergency Service Regulatory Board.
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5 percent divided annually between the Comprehensive Advanced Life Support Program and the Regional Trauma Advisory Councils.
State Senator Jeff Hayden (DFL-Minneapolis) has introduced this bill in the Senate.