Oklahoma ranked 48th in emergency medicine

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A new report ranks Oklahoma near the bottom of the 50 states and District of Columbia in emergency medical care.<br/><br/>The report by the American College of Emergency Physicians

Tuesday, January 10th 2006, 11:15 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A new report ranks Oklahoma near the bottom of the 50 states and District of Columbia in emergency medical care.

The report by the American College of Emergency Physicians gives the state an overall grade of "D+" and ranks Oklahoma 48th.

The report ranks Oklahoma 41st in support of advance life support ambulance services and online medical direction and places the state 36th in enhanced 911 services. It also rates the state 50th in the percentage of children immunized and 39th in contributions for children's health insurance.

The state does rate well in two categories ranking second in the nation for the number of emergency departments and third for the number of trauma centers.

The group calls for an increase in health insurance for the uninsured, more disaster-response training and childhood immunization programs and for medical liability lawsuit reforms.