The people who respond to medical emergencies get hurt doing it. Each year from 2016 to 2020, an estimated 16,900 to 21,900 emergency medical services (EMS) clinicians were treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments for injuries suffered on the job. The most common injury was a sprain or strain, the most common cause was overexertion — and the person who caused the injury was usually the clinician's own body, or a patient.
Where the numbers come from
The figures are national estimates from NIOSH's NEISS-Work system, covering nonfatal injuries treated in emergency departments that happened during paid or volunteer EMS work. Firefighters are included when they were injured doing EMS duties such as patient care, transport, rescue or working in an ambulance. Because they are estimates from a sample, each has a wide confidence interval; some are flagged as less stable.
Year by year
| Year | Injuries treated (95% CI) | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 21,900 (13,900–29,800) | 64% | 36% |
| 2017 | 21,200 (12,800–29,700) | 70% | 30% |
| 2018 | 19,800 (9,600–30,100) | 62% | 38% |
| 2019 | 17,500 (9,600–25,300) | 61% | 39% |
| 2020 | 16,900 (9,200–24,700) | 59% | 41% |
In every year most injured clinicians were men, and about half or more were younger than 35; clinicians aged 25–34 alone accounted for 39% to 44%.
What happened in 2020
| Estimated injuries | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis | ||
| Sprains and strains | 4,000 | 24% |
| Bruises and abrasions | 2,600 | 15% |
| Event | ||
| Overexertion and bodily reaction | 5,200* | 31% |
| Violence | 3,000 | 18% |
| Harmful exposures | 2,500 | 15% |
| Transportation incidents | 2,500* | 15% |
| Contact with objects and equipment | 2,100 | 12% |
| Falls, slips and trips | 1,600* | 10% |
| Source | ||
| Persons (mostly other people, or the clinician's own motion) | 9,000 | 53% |
| Vehicles | 4,100 | 24% |
| Tools, instruments and equipment | 1,800 | 11% |
*Less stable estimate. The leg (19%), upper trunk including neck and shoulders (18%), arm (13%), lower trunk (13%) and hand and fingers (11%) were the most often injured, and 98% of injured clinicians were treated and released. More than a third of sprains and strains involved the upper trunk.
What changed, and what didn't
- Overexertion led every year. It caused 27% to 36% of injuries each year, and about 40% (2017) to more than 40% (2016) of those overexertion injuries were specifically from lifting.
- The second cause shifted. In 2016–2018 it was exposure to harmful substances such as potentially infectious body fluids (19% in 2016). In 2019 and 2020 it was violence.
- Patients are part of the risk. Almost 40% of sprains and strains in 2016 and 2017, and almost 50% in 2019, were related to interacting with a patient.
- Sprains and strains were the top diagnosis every year, at 21% to 34% of injuries.
Sources
Based on "Emergency Medical Services Clinician Injury Data," National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from the NEISS-Work occupational supplement; a work of the United States government in the public domain. Events and sources are coded with the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System, version 2.01.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.cdc.gov
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