Editor’s note: Letters such as the one that follows are being sent to Ohio state lawmakers by fire departments throughout our region. Some of those departments asked that an example be published as a letter to the editor, in an effort to inform the public and garner support for their efforts. This particular letter was addressed to Ohio Rep. Don Jones, R-Freeport, who represents Ohio’s 95th House District:

Dear Representative Jones:

On January 5th, 2023, House Bill (HB) 509 was signed into law by the Governor.

As with any bill, it is understood that there are many small pieces of the legislation that may not be clearly known or understood upon passage. With that, we feel it is extremely important to bring one very important change from this bill to your attention that could have a crippling and long lasting impact on the ability for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) agencies to provide adequate and timely services to the residents throughout the state of Ohio.

With HB-509, there was a considerable amount of markups and revisions to the specific language pertaining to Firefighter and EMS training and certification.

However there was no change more devastating than the language below that was struck from the current regulations by HB-509:

“(2) No person shall operate an emergency medical services continuing education program without a certificate of approval issued under section 4765.17 of the Revised Code.”

While this may not seem like a large change at face value, this law will now mandate that Continuing Education (CE) hours can only be provided through “accredited” institutions. There are currently over 600 CE programs in the state of Ohio, of which the vast majority operate under certificates of approval from the Ohio Division of EMS and are not accredited institutions. In Belmont County alone, there are ten (10) CE programs, and only one (1) is an accredited institution. The large majority of CE hours for First Responders, Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics in Belmont County, and likely throughout the more rural areas of the state, come from Ohio state certified CE programs and not accredited institutions. These would be classes and education provided by the same state certified instructors but just through local fire departments or EMS agencies that have applied and been certified to provide such education.

If this law goes into effect on April 6th, 2023 as written, it will significantly reduce the ability for EMS providers to obtain CE hours to maintain their certifications.

This is because fire departments and EMS agencies with CE programs are now able to provide training to their personnel locally and with a more flexible schedule. Many EMS providers throughout the state are volunteers and cannot always find the time around their work schedules to go to an accredited institution for CE classes. Furthermore, many volunteers and even part-time EMS workers will not be able to maintain their certifications and this will result in a drop in the number of Ohio certified EMS providers in an already shrinking profession. In the end, the residents of the state of Ohio will be the ones negatively impacted by delays in services.

We would appreciate your consideration to immediately repeal this change in legislation and continue to allow CE programs to function under a certificate of approval from the Ohio Division of EMS.

Belmont Volunteer Fire Department