EMS Grants & Projects

Michigan Center for Rural Health

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Michigan Health Endowment Fund: Developing EMS Health Professional Shortage Areas in Michigan

The Michigan Center for Rural Health (MCRH) has been awarded $277,497 in grant funding from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund (Health Fund). The Special Projects and Emerging Ideas grant award will be used to develop a methodology to understand the EMS workforce shortage. This project work will provide a data-driven approach to allocate resources across the state effectively, leading to improved service delivery and potential policy changes.

Over the next 18 months, MCRH will use this Health Fund grant to leverage relationships with key stakeholders, and in-house expertise, to develop an EMS Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) methodology. A HPSA designation identifies an area, population, or facility experiencing a shortage of health care services. As it currently stands, there is no designation to identify shortages of pre-hospital care professionals for rural Michigan. Developing this HPSA designation will bring awareness and understanding to the pre-hospital provider workforce disparities in rural communities across the state of Michigan.

Interested in learning more about HPSA designations? Click here:

2024 MDHHS Emergency Medical Services Workforce Grant

Award: Coming Soon | Performance period: October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024

Focus: Establish, implement, and operate a workforce development program to be used for training people in emergency medical services to address the critical shortage of paramedics statewide and to increase accessibility to EMS education programming, specifically paramedic programs, in Michigan.

The EMS workforce paramedic scholarship application offers 2 tracks.

Track 1: This scholarship track will provide up to $20,000 in student tuition and fees to attend the approved initial paramedic education program of choice (EMS agencies and colleges qualify).

Track 2: This scholarship track offers reimbursement for the time spent in EMS training programs, at a rate of $15/hour, to a maximum of $16,000 per student (EMS agencies qualify).

Everyone interested in attending a Michigan approved initial paramedic education program is encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to the following categories:

EMS professionals serving rural Michigan census track communities

Single parents with a desire to serve as a paramedic

Women with a desire to serve as a paramedic

Racial and ethnic minorities with a desire to serve as a paramedic

Veterans with a desire to serve as a paramedic

Applications Opening Soon

The institution receiving the scholarship funds must apply for the scholarship amount on behalf of the student. Funding will only be distributed to initial education paramedic programs and licensed Michigan EMS agencies.

The applicant institution must agree to the following grant scholarship terms:

The application is to be submitted by the institution receiving the grant funds, on behalf of the applicant scholar.
The applicant must represent an initial paramedic education program or a licensed Michigan EMS agency.
The applicant understands to qualify for paramedic student hourly reimbursement they must be an EMS agency employer.
The applicant understands the recipient(s) of this scholarship must agree to practice paramedicine in Michigan for at least two years following scholarship award. By signing the application agreement, the filing institution attests to this.
The applicant understands that the student receiving the scholarship funds must adhere to the terms set forth by the applicant institution.
The applicant institution understands the scholarship recipient is expected to remain in good standing for the course of the initial education program. The institution providing the scholarship funds must create and provide a written signed agreement with the student outlining the expectation of scholarship fund repayment to the filing institution should the student not complete the program.
The applicant institution understands to receive grant funds proof of the scholarship recipient paramedic initial education program enrollment is required on or before September 30, 2023.
The applicant institution agrees to report to MCRH on the required grant reporting outcomes.

Grant Application Guidance

EMS Workforce Budget Application

EMS Workforce Scholarship Webinar Q&A

EMS Workforce Scholarship Application FAQ (Word .docx)

MI Rural County Census Map (Word.docx)

UP Workforce Innovation Network

Award: 1.5 million | Performance Period: August 1, 2022- July 31, 2025

The overarching goal of the U.P. WIN project is to increase the Community Health Worker (CHW) and Community Paramedicine (CP) workforce capacity by expanding and extending the reach of health professional workforce education, training, employment, and retention activities within the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) of Michigan region. Through the work of the U.P. WIN, the CHW and CP workforce in the U.P will expand by offering job development, training, and placement opportunities. The U.P. WIN project will focus on track one (Community Health Support) and track three (Community Paramedicine) to address the need for CHWs and CPs throughout the U.P. region.

The CP track program has three goals:

Goal #1: Establishing a CP and Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) education program in the U.P. through the Marquette School of EMT and UP Health System. The Marquette School of EMT has the capability to service the U.P. through hybrid education models, satellite education, and clinical sites established for students throughout the region.

Goal #2: Create an education pipeline for EMT and Paramedicine programs that intertwine portions of the CP curriculum, thus allowing students to gain exposure to CP and accomplish portions of the MIH certifications in the State of Michigan. The students can then obtain Michigan MIH and CP program employment once they graduate. This innovative education curriculum creates workforce certification diversity allowing EMT and Paramedic graduates greater workforce opportunities and a smaller education gap when choosing to enter MIH or CP certification education programs.

Goal #3: Develop a Community Paramedicine model that contributes to value-based care in the U.P. through MIH models that provide in-home care for patients with chronic health conditions, decrease hospital readmissions, and address at risk populations.

The UPWIN grant network consists of 9 grant partners:

Northern Michigan University Center for Rural Health
UP Michigan Works
UP Area Health Education Center
Upper Great Lakes Family Health Center
Upper Peninsula Healthcare Solutions
Everyday Life Consulting
UP Health System-Marquette School of EMT
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Bureau of Trauma, EMS & Systems of Care

Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program-Emergency Medical Services Competing Supplement

Award: 300,000 | Performance Period: September 1, 2022-August 31, 2024

The Michigan Center for Rural Health (MCRH) in collaboration with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Bureau of EMS, Trauma, & Systems of Care will strengthen Michigan’s rural EMS agency quality improvement and data reporting programming and culture by bringing together 15 rural EMS agencies under the Michigan Rural EMS Quality Improvement Alliance. The purpose of the project is to increase reporting compliance, improve the accuracy of data reported, increase the timeliness of data reported, and develop a culture of quality reporting in 12 participating rural EMS agencies.

MCRH and MDHHS BETSC have analyzed the current state of EMS quality data reporting and have identified the need to 1.) improve electronic patient care submission timeliness and 2.) improve submission validation incident rates when uploading data to the Michigan EMS Information System (MI-EMSIS). This project will focus on the eleven approved National EMS Quality Alliance (NEMSQA) core EMS performance measures. When analyzing this data set in MI-EMSIS, it is clear Michigan’s rural EMS agencies have ample opportunity for improvement on data reporting. This project will close the identified data reporting gaps.

The 10 Participating EMS Agencies: