Rural emergency medical services training collaborative: a public provider ambulance services and five separate fire departments collaborating on joint EMS training with other community partners. -…

Rural emergency medical services training collaborative: a public provider ambulance services and five separate fire departments collaborating on joint EMS training with other community partners. - based in a BI-county rural and isolated part of coastal northern california, the rural emergency medical services training collaborative (remstc) formed to align and expand our local EMS training capacity and to link mental health and substance abuse education. Remstc's strategies are to: 1) engage and convene all district EMS agencies in collaborative EMS training rather than working in silos; 2) expand local certified EMS coursework; and 3) grow distant learning access allowing students remote access to EMS coursework. Our training goals are targeted at recruiting and enticing community members into entry level EMS roles while keeping local EMS first responders' licensure and certification current. Remstc is comprised of five fire districts spanning the district. Located in mendocino county are redwood coast and south coast fire protection districts. In sonoma county are the north sonoma coast, timber cove fire protection districts and the annapolis volunteer fire department. Coast life support district (clsd) is the sole regional ambulance provider and provides two paramedic-staffed ambulances 24/7. There are 135 pre-hospital personnel in total: (9) paramedics, (43) emts, (56) firefighters with minimal EMS training, and (26) firefighters with no EMS training. All total, 96% are volunteer. Because the district is sixty miles long, ambulance response times can be 30-40 minutes. Fire EMS personnel are usually first on scene frequently providing initial medical care. Transports to the regional hospitals (none are in the district) are two hours away. Other local partners engaged and committed to improving EMS resilience and mental health and substance abuse services is the mendonoma health alliance (MHA) offering a diversity of prevention-based and harm reduction services to address opioid and substance use disorders. Additionally, redwood coast medical services offering primary care, urgent care (UC), dental, and behavioral health services. The UC sees over 5,000 patients a year and is an essential EMS partner. The community is comprised of 5,300 full time residents surging to ~11K during the summer and holidays. Currently, a prolonged surge is due to urban flight from the covid-19 pandemic. With many residents retired, there is a prevalence of chronic diseases (e.g., cardiac, respiratory, hypertension, diabetes and dementia) which strains the limited EMS resources. There is also a growing number of families who speak spanish at home as well as two kashia bands of pomo indians on reservations. At the conclusion of this funding cycle, we plan to have a refined program cultivated by data and outcomes analysis that is financially sustainable and a model that can be replicated in other rural communities.