A recipient of the Consumers’ Research Council of America’s Top Physicians award for 2014, Naval Parikh, MD, functions not only as a physician in private practice, but also as the clinical site coordinator for a drug-therapy research company. Prior to this role, Dr. Naval Parikh served as an emergency medical technician (EMT) in Charleston, South Carolina.
Although EMTs and other emergency medical services (EMS) providers satisfy an important need in their communities, a 2013 study published by the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that this group experienced on-the-job injuries at a higher rate than the average for all occupations in the US. More specifically, the number of people working in an EMS field who visited the emergency room with an injury of this kind was four times the national average.
According to Safety+Health magazine, full-time personnel and individuals with fewer than 10 years of experience accounted for the highest number of injuries, with 40 percent of those people between the ages of 18 and 29. The most common forms of ailments are strains and back or neck sprains and most occurred while the EMS worker was in the process of assisting someone who had called 911. A total of 22,000 EMS providers spent time in an emergency room themselves for a job-related injury.
