STAND. COM. REP. NO.  710

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

 

RE:   H.B. No. 875

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 875, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this bill is to mitigate the critical shortfall of paramedics in Hawaii by assisting students to access the classroom and clinical training necessary to become mobile intensive care technicians, also known as paramedics.

 

     More specifically, the bill establishes a training stipend program for emergency medical technicians who want to advance in their chosen profession by enrolling in a state-qualified mobile intensive care technician training program.

 

     A facilitator from the Maui Emergency Medical Services Advisory Committee submitted testimony in support of this measure.  The Department of Health submitted comments.

 

     Your Committee finds that an estimated two hundred fifty mobile intensive care technicians are needed by 2008 to fully staff the State's emergency medical services system.  The lack of local training programs has made the shortage even more acute, especially on the neighbor islands.

 

     Your Committee also finds that the state-qualified mobile intensive care technician training program requires classroom and practical training, with the latter offered only on the island of Oahu.  Thus, students from the neighbor islands must relocate to Oahu for four to eight months for clinical skills training and internship.

 

     Your Committee further finds that state-funded stipends to train in an accredited eighteen-month program are available only to employees of the City and County of Honolulu and to employees of the Hawaii County Fire Department.  Accordingly, many emergency medical technicians who are not civil service employees are unable to enroll in the mobile intensive care technician training and internship program without financial assistance.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 875, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

 

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

 

 

 

 

____________________________

JOSHUA B. GREEN, M.D., Chair