Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) Safety Stats and Facts

FACTS

  1. Emergency medical technicians and paramedics have higher fatal injury rates when compared with all workers.
  2. Emergency medical services workers face a rate of occupational injury that is much higher than the national average and transportation-related events are a significant component of that risk.
  3. Patient care is a critical factor in daily stress among EMTs, both on workdays and post-workdays, providing preliminary evidence for a carryover effect. Evidence also suggests that stress on the day before work may influence EMT’s perceptions of their patients.
  4. EMS personnel were most commonly treated in EDs for body motion injuries as a result of excessive physical effort, awkward posture or repetitive movement. Many of these injuries were back and neck sprains and strains. Most personnel with body motion injuries were transferring, carrying or lifting a patient at the time of their injury.
  5. The second most common reason for EMS personnel to seek ED treatment was exposure to harmful substances, which mostly involved exposure to blood or respiratory secretions. About one-fifth of these injuries were needlesticks.
  6. Work-related injury and fatality rates among US paramedics and emergency medical technicians are higher than the national average for all occupations.

STATS

  • With the Occupational Outlook Handbook projecting that the demand for EMTs and paramedics will increase 24 % from 2014-2024, it is vital that injuries to workers be prevented to protect and preserve the workers and the workforce.
  • On average, 22,000 career and volunteer EMT personnel visited emergency departments each year for work-related injuries. The rate of injuries among career EMT personnel treated in the ED was more than four times higher than the rate for all workers.
  • Three-quarters of injured workers were full-time, career EMS workers and an additional 10 percent were part-time, career workers.
  • With younger workers outnumbering older workers in the EMT workforce, it follows that more than 40 percent of injured workers were between 18 and 29 years-old. Similarly, more than half of injured EMT personnel had less than 10 years’ of experience. Two-thirds of injuries occurred to male EMT personnel who represent about two-thirds of the workforce. Males and females were equally likely to sustain an injury.