2017 Wisconsin Act 97 – Upgrade to Ambulance Service Level

The paper is founded on 2017 Wisconsin Act 97. Upgrade to Ambulance Service Level. The law was first introduced in Wisconsin Senate on 11th of May 2017 by six senators including Vinehout, Harsdorf, Nass, Feyen, Marklein, and Olsen and cosponsored by other 16 senate representative. It was read for the first time on the same day, which was followed by a public hearing on June. Executive action was taken on 30th of august where the bill was adopted. The bill was read for the second and third time on the October and passed on the same month. A few adjustments were made on November, read again with amendment for the second and third timebefore it was presented to the governor by end of that month where it was approved in the beginning of December and published as a law (Docs.legis.wisconsin.gov, 2017b).

The main reason of introducing this bill was to promote health care among the people that live in the rural parts of the Wisconsin state. Limited ambulance services limited the level of saving life during the patient transition from home to the nearest hospital. The bill focused on eliminating these limitations by offering ambulance providers a chance to upgrade their services to maximize the aspect of saving life. The 2017 Wisconsin Act 97 permits service providers of rural ambulance to upgrade their level of services to the highest license level of any emergency medical services practitioner ambulance staffing can offer if the medical director accepts a proposal presented to her or him by the service provider of rural ambulance. The Act also permits a service provider of rural ambulance to upgrade its services to only advertise for service level the provider is capable of offering 24 hours service on daily basis. It also needs a service provider of rural ambulance who upgrades to bring its operation plan up to date with the health service department. The bill was passed though legislative vote (Docs.legis.Wisconsin.gov. (2017a).

The law is created to improve the quality of care among patients needing ambulance transition from their rural homes to the nearby hospital. This law is basically founded on healthcare ground and hence it highly affects healthcare organization in various ways. Improving ambulance services increases chances of saving life and reducing health complications that could occur before the patient reach to the emergency room. This increases chances of survival before and after admission to the emergency room. This increases chances for high patient outcome in a healthcare organization, reduced duration of hospitalization and also reduction in the death rate. It also ensure decline in the death rate of people living in the area in the state, especially among elderly people suffering from chronic diseases such as heart diseases, and diabetes among others. Being able to save patient life during transition and to offer more care to ensure no condition advancement will be highly beneficial to the community in the rural area and also to the surrounding healthcare organizations. Upgrading ambulance services will also help in reducing the cost of care in the healthcare organization since most patients will not demand length intensive care services due to preventable condition advancement during transition. The law will thus have a great impact to the health care organization and the health ministry in the state in general.

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