By Bill Carey
FireRescue1
DALLAS — A new digital white paper by FirstWatch, in collaboration with the National EMS Quality Alliance (NEMSQA), demonstrates how performance measures can be used to “take the pulse” of your EMS system.
The “Taking the Pulse of Your System” white paper explores key performance measures such as effectiveness, safety, satisfaction, equity and efficiency, offering considerations and best practices for extracting insights from the data, NEMSQA stated.
“This is an excellent complement to our implementation guide, Improving Safety in EMS: Reducing the Use of Lights and Siren,” NEMSQA Executive Director Sheree Murphy said. “The information is presented in an engaging and comprehensive way to give all EMS leaders and practitioners a practical introduction to the world of performance measures. Many of these leaders demonstrate their commitment to improvement on a national level through NEMSQA, but also in their everyday quality improvement work at the agency and system level.”
The paper examines:
- How to define “good” performance
- Important metrics to monitor
- Tips for benchmarking and comparing your performance to similar agencies
- Visualizing and presenting performance data objectively
- Identifying areas for improvement
- Creating improvement plans
- Monitoring progress
- Case studies from agencies that have used these principles to improve performance
- Relevant NEMSQA performance measures
“Improvement doesn’t need to be complicated,” Jeff Jarvis, MD, NEMSQA committee chair for performance measures and an author of the report aid. “How to get started? Adopt the NEMSQA measures, find one where your agency performs below the national benchmark, and get to work.
