About the Governor's Public Health Commission
The Governor's Public Health Commission was established in August 2021 to examine the strengths and weaknesses of Indiana's public health system and make recommendations for improvements. The commission released its report in August 2022, with recommendations for six different areas of public health: governance, infrastructure and services; funding; workforce; data and information integration; emergency preparedness and childhood and adolescent health. Emergency preparedness covers emergency medical services (EMS).
Learn more about the commission, including details on its ongoing work, at the Governor's Public Health Commission page on the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) website.
Emergency Preparedness
The commission's report identified the need to enhance the emergency preparedness area of public health, which includes changes to the EMS field in Indiana. The report's findings on this area begin on page 74 and include history of the field, funding, recent issues and recommended solutions.
A flyer summarizing the emergency preparedness findings is also available.
Goals and Recommendations
The report listed several goals and recommendations for improvement emergency preparedness. Read them in full on pages 26-28 of the report.
Goals
- Ensure connectivity and facilitate information exchange in preparation for and during public health emergencies
- Enhance LHD, IDOH and EMS readiness
- Improve the scalability of emergency response efforts beyond the local level
- Ensure state and local agencies have tools to prioritize and maintain responder resilience
Recommendations
- Increase utilization of IDOH's EMResource tool across all Indiana hospitals, local public health departments, first responders and applicable government agencies
- Enhance IDOH's emergency services and supplies capacity
- Ensure local level EMS readiness through expansion and sustainability of EMS workforce
- Improve regional coordination efforts to ensure a seamless emergency response