[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.