The Utah Department of Health (UDOH), Bureau of Emergency Medical Services (EMS), has been honored for being among the first 10 states to provide ambulance statistics to the National EMS Database.

“Improving patient care and health outcomes are and will continue to be a focus of the Utah Department of Health,” said Paul R. Patrick, Director of EMS and the Public Health and Hospital Preparedness Program. “There are important benefits in sharing our data with the National EMS Database System. With the valuable information provided to us from the collection of other states’ ambulance data, we’ll be able to evaluate our patient care systems full-circle, and make the necessary improvements to strengthen our emergency services, ambulance transports, and hospital care.”

Using ambulance data from Utah and other states, EMS providers can evaluate the effectiveness of their medications and treatment protocols. Traffic accidents are the leading cause of EMS calls in Utah; with national ambulance data, EMS responders can identify best practices for treating people injured in traffic accidents.

Sixty percent of Utah EMS providers transmit their ambulance data to the Bureau of EMS, in compliance with Utah administrative rule. The Bureau of EMS then strips private information from the data and submits it to the National EMS Database, where it is combined with ambulance statistics from other states. “We are much stronger as one voice than we will ever be as many different ones,” said Dr. Ed Racht of Austin-Travis EMS of Texas.

”This represents a significant effort made by the Bureau of EMS and local EMS providers across Utah," said Dr. Clay Mann of the National EMS Information System Technical Assistance Center (NEMSIS TAC).

By implementing the National EMS data standard, the state is paving the way for better patient care not only in Utah, but throughout the country. Further information about the National EMS Information System is available at www.nemsis.org

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