EMSpic | Performance Improvement Center

The goal of the EMS Performance Improvement Toolkits is to apply knowledge, data, and experience to evaluate and improve EMS service delivery, personnel performance, and clinical care. The EMS Toolkits place special emphasis on assisting local and state EMS agencies regardless of their knowledge or expertise in performance improvement. In order to do this, a "turbo tax" method was designed to create a web-based reporting package. Each reporting package includes a series of reports analyzing important components of an EMS event. Each EMS Toolkit trends and provides recommendations for the local EMS system to measure and compare themselves anonymously to other EMS systems. Based on the Toolkit results, suggestions for improvements are generated. The EMS Toolkits are designed to measure and adjust performance over time. Areas of analysis include, Local EMS System Response, the State EMS System, Trauma Care, Cardiac Arrest Care, Acute Cardiac Care, EMS Acute Stroke Care and Pediatrics.

Upon development and implementation of the EMS Toolkits within North Carolina, an ongoing block grant award system was established. In collaboration with the NCOEMS and the NC EMS systems, EMS Toolkit data is analyzed to determine EMS needs across the state. Through a competitive grant process, the NCOEMS and EMSPIC provide funding directly to the EMS systems to address those identified needs. After resources have been applied and measurable time has passed, the EMS Toolkit is re-generated, therefore, analyzing measurable performance improvement over time. The first phase of funding focused on the EMS System Response Toolkit and supported the development and enhancement of EMD systems as well as the implementation of policy changes. The second phase of this block grant system focuses on the Cardiac Arrest Care EMS Toolkit and supports the purchasing of capnography equipment and/or 12-lead EKG equipment to be placed directly on the ambulances providing care. The goal of this project is to ensure that each operating ambulance within North Carolina is equipped with both capnography and 12-Lead EKG devises. It is anticipated that similar block grant project will commence in South Carolina in 2011.