Quality And Evaluation

A Leadership Guide to Quality Improvement for EMS Systems

The “Leadership Guide to Quality Improvement for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Systems” was developed to serve as a template for EMS managers who want to establish and maintain a program for continuously monitoring and improving the quality of patient care and support services in all parts of the EMS system. It encourages EMS leaders to integrate continuous quality improvement practices as essential parts of normal EMS routines.

EMS National Research Agenda

This report documents the need for EMS research and for elevating the science of EMS and prehospital care to the next level. Eight barriers to conducting EMS research are discussed and innovative solutions offered in the areas of developing researchers, facilitating collaboration, establishing a reliable funding stream, establishing alternative funding sources, recognizing the need for EMS research, viewing research as necessary for the improvement of patient care, creating reliable information systems, and enhancing ethical approaches to research.

Emergency Medical Services Outcomes Evaluation

Clinical effectiveness studies to address EMS outcomes research require the development of sophisticated case-severity and effectiveness measures. Outcomes research will allow future generations of Americans to have an EMS system that provides both quality and cost-effective EMS care. This report describes a project that has laid the foundation for these clinical effectiveness studies to take place. This project developed a “blueprint” or “set of tools” that EMS practitioners can use to evaluate the effectiveness of EMS, or prehospital, care.

EMS Performance Measures (December 2006)

The EMS Performance Measures Project is coordinated by the National Association of State EMS Officials (NASEMSO) in partnership with the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP), and supported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

The EMS Performance Measures Project seeks to create a set of 20 to 30 EMS system performance indicators and attributes that can begin to be used to better explain our discipline to the outside world, including those who use and/or fund our services. This is simply the beginning of an effort to establish national standards for such measures so that those using them will be able to compare their system’s performance with other systems. It is expected that more indicators will be added to this set in the future.