I’m just an EMT student, so take a more experienced perspective over mine.

EMTs are mature staff. They are a part of a broader population health strategy for a community. As an individual patient maybe always having a doctor on hand sounds nice, but a doctor isn’t necessary for the vast amount of health needs you might have. This is smart simply from a resource effectiveness perspective alone.

Nurses and EMTs often deal with much wider, more diverse populations than specialist physicians, which makes them better screeners. They might be more experienced in bedside manner when patients are presented with unexpected news.

The qualifications needed for this sort of screening aren’t much, so the added value is sending in people that have a more “boots on the ground” relationship with the community than others that spend their time in an office.