Friends Helps Raise $250,000 for ICSD in Maine
The Friends of EMS for Maine (Friends) has embraced the EMS Informed Community Self-Determination (ICSD) initiative as a vital tool for communities experiencing issues in sustaining effective EMS. With no EMS agency in the state able to financially break even without subsidy in addition to the revenue received from patient charges and insurance reimbursement, and with the “volunteer subsidy” (amount saved through donated volunteer time) in constant decline, this pressure is worsening.
The ICSD process brings a team of ICSD Guides to an area served by an ambulance service with operating issues of one sort or another and a desire to fix them. Together with a project steering group comprised of local leaders in the towns served by that service, the Guides work to evaluate the service, define the issues that exist, create possible options to addressing those issues, inform local decision-makers (often the tax payers themselves) about EMS in general, the issues that exist and the possible solutions, and help them decide on a solution that fits their need and their perceived ability to pay for that solution.
The ICSD process costs in the neighborhood of $15,000 for a rural EMS agency serving a few towns and increases with the size and complexity of the service area. The Friends, partnered with The Paramedic Foundation – a nationally renowned rural EMS support organization - received $50,000 from the Maine Health Access Foundation to support two ICSD projects in Maine in 2022. The grant also supported the cost of establishing a cadre of ICSD Guides to conduct future projects.
Union Fire/Rescue and Old Town Fire/Rescue, both strong services but wanting an objective evaluation of their operation and funding, were the successful applicants and their projects are now ongoing until June 30, 2023.
The Maine Rural Health Action Network, a group of rural health professionals that meets regularly, published a paper on EMS ICSD called Engaging Communities to Preserve Access to Emergency Medical Services in Rural Maine. Encouraged by the paper, Waldo County’s Senator Chip Curry drafted LD 1859 to fund ICSD projects into 2023 and 2024 and beyond. The bill was signed into law this year, funding $200,000 for ICSD. Maine EMS will be administering these funds and is drafting a a proposal process for an organization to coordinate it. Friends has no administrative staff, so will work with the successful applicant to transfer its ICSD manual and materials and Guides in as seamless a transition as possible and will continue to support ICSD efforts as it can. ICSD founder, Kevin McGinnis, will work with the organization through its early projects to complete the transition.