    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 22 (Monday, June 7, 1993)]
    [Page 991]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Proclamation 6567--Emergency Medical Services Week, 1993 and 1994

     May 28, 1993

    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

    [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 2:43 p.m., June 3, 1993]

    Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on June 7.
    This item was not received in time for publication in the appropriate
    issue.