Idaho EMS Bureau Switches Departments to Address Issues
In a move to address staffing shortages and other issues, the Idaho Bureau of Emergency Medical Services (IBEMS) has been moved from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to the Idaho Military Division (IMD). The IMD is home to the state’s Air and Army National Guard, the Idaho Office of Emergency Management, and Public Safety Communications, among other entities. The change was mandated by Idaho House Bill 206 and implemented on July 1, 2025.
The IBEMS operates a range of critical programs, including state EMS systems and licensing, state communications and the Time Sensitive Emergency program.
“We've been working with a group of stakeholders for a number of years to make our very volunteer-dependent EMS system in Idaho much more sustainable,” said Wayne Denny, IBEMS’s Bureau Chief. “We’ve been doing this through the Idaho EMS Sustainability Task Force, at the same time that another state group was building more public safety resources within the IMD. As a result of these initiatives, the state legislature decided to move the IBEMS into the IMD along with implementing recommendations from our task force through H.B. 206 in order to help us address Idaho’s EMS issues.”
The move was welcomed by Major General Tim Donnellan, Adjutant General of Idaho. “This transition presents IMD with an opportunity to use our knowledge and build upon our expertise while continuing to serve Idahoans through expanded capabilities that enhance our commitment to public safety,” he said in a statement on the IMD website. “We’re excited to welcome EMS into IMD and look forward to the incredible impact we can make together for communities across the state.”
Idaho’s EMS community is currently dealing with two challenges. First, many of its personnel are volunteers—with insufficient numbers to keep up with growing demand. Second, EMS is not a government-funded service in the state, which makes it difficult to adequately equip EMS agencies and pay for professional staff.
Bringing the IBEMS into the IMD won’t necessarily solve these problems. But it will help the state’s EMS agencies do better with the resources they have at hand.
“A lot of the EMS work that happens locally goes through the emergency management offices at the local counties and funnels up through the state at the Office of Emergency Management,” Denny said. “As part of the IMD, it will help the IBEMS in our efforts to coordinate efforts between Office of Emergency Management field officers and local EMS agencies. As well, we’ll be able to make changes to EMS systems in Idaho more dynamically under the IMD, because it is a much smaller organization than the Department of Health and Welfare. In other words, we have a much closer connection to leadership within the military division than we would have in the Department of Health and Welfare.”
Denny also believes that belonging to the IMD will give the IBEMS and Idaho EMS agencies more opportunities to access funding, in line with recommendations from the Idaho EMS Sustainability Task Force.
“The Sustainability Task Force came up with several recommendations that would help with sustainability in volunteer-dependent rural areas,” he said. “One thing that we came back to repeatedly was the lack of resources in areas where you've got a very small population base. You can't expect them to be able to field a reliable, effective EMS response based on local tax dollars or fees because there just aren't enough people there to pay for them. There are also not enough volunteers in these areas, so trying to find ways to make a paid position or two within those areas possible is a top priority. Now that the IBEMS has completed the move to the IMD, we can continue having conversations with state legislators to solve these problems.”
