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In 1967, the Tennessee Medical Association (TMA) formed a Committee on Emergency Medical Services. The following year, Governor Buford Ellington convened an advisory committee to survey ambulance services and medical facilities. This survey formed the basis of a state plan for an EMS program.
The EMS Act of 1972 created the EMS Division in the Department of Public Health, and created a State EMS Advisory Council of thirteen members to advise the Division on program development and regulation. The first order of business was to implement EMT training throughout the state. The first graduates of an 81-hour training program were state certified as emergency medical technicians as of May 1, 1972, and by the fall of 1972, EMS consultants had established training programs across the state. The EMS Act of 1973 authorized advanced life support training in Tennessee utilizing the term “EMT-Advanced” to define a paramedic. In 1980, the position of State EMS Training Coordinator was officially designated.
The EMS Act of 1983 provided for the transition of the EMS Advisory Council into a State EMS Board, the first regulatory board for emergency medical services programs in the United States. The EMS Board was empowered to promulgate rules, conduct hearings, discipline emergency medical services and personnel, and to continue to oversee program development. The 1983 Act formally used the term “EMT-Paramedic” in the State law. The Commissioner of Health, through the EMS Division and the department’s legal counsel, could assess civil penalties for violations of the law. In 1992, the law was amended to recognize “licensure” of emergency medical technicians and paramedics; but the term “certification” still applied to emergency medical first responders.
Following a national trend during the 1980s, emphasis was placed on improving trauma care, with specially staffed medical facilities designated as trauma centers. The Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center in Memphis was established in 1983 and designated as a Level 1 Tennessee Trauma Center in 1985. The process of designating statewide Trauma Centers throughout the state was accomplished in 1988 through regulations adopted in 1985 and 1987.
In 1995, the EMS Division established the Tennessee Emergency Medical Services for Children Program, through a $700,000 federal grant under a contact with Vanderbilt University Children’s Hospital. Standards for emergency medical facilities and emergency medical services for children were required by legislation enacted in 1998.
Early defibrillation programs for the public were promoted by legislation in 1998 and 1999. Emergency medical first responders were authorized to use automated external defibrillators in 1994, and by 1997, all ambulances responding the scene of an emergency were required to be equipped with a defibrillator.
Based on information supplied by Richard Land of the Tennessee EMS Division.
By: AJ Akhtar
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