Proclamation 6567

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

Emergency medical services personnel provide a vital public service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Traumatic injury is the leading cause of death and disability for men, women, and children between the ages of 1 and 44 years. Each year, injuries account for more than 140,000 deaths, over 2 million hospitalizations, and more than 80,000 permanent disabilities.

Inclusive emergency medical systems play a significant role in reducing mortality and disability due to injuries. Quality emergency medical care saves lives and reduces disability by linking pre-hospital, hospital, and rehabilitation services that provide optimal care for all Americans.

Americans benefit daily from the dedication and immediate care provided by physicians, emergency nurses, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, fire fighters, educators, administrators, and others who serve in coordinated systems of emergency care. Emergency medical care providers dedicate thousands of hours to specialized training and continuing education to enhance and maintain their lifesaving skills. Two-thirds of these individuals are volunteers, many of whom serve in rural areas of the country.

Since the initial efforts to establish emergency medicine as a medical specialty 25 years ago, emergency medical care providers have continually advanced standards of practice in the emergency management of traumatically injured persons. Their efforts have resulted in the development of systems to improve trauma care planning, regionalized systems of trauma care, and an increased public awareness of the effects of injury and their prevention.

We salute our Nation's emergency medical services providers. Their daily efforts affect millions of men, women, and children who suffer from acute illness or injury by returning them to productive lives.

The Congress, by House Joint Resolution 78, has designated the weeks beginning May 23, 1993, and May 15, 1994, as "Emergency Medical Services Week" and has authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of the event.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the weeks of May 23 through 29, 1993, and May 15 through 21, 1994, as Emergency Medical Services Week. I call upon all Americans to observe this period with appropriate programs and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and seventeenth.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON