Southeast Arizona EMS Performance Improvement Initiative

In 2003, the Southeast Arizona Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Performance Improvement Initiative Pilot Project in Cochise County began.  During the first year, a partnership was established among the Southeastern Arizona EMS Council, the Flex Program, and all the EMS agencies in Cochise County. The partnership selected the EMS information that would be collected in the new laptop data entry system using “Sweetsoft” software, by seven ambulances. All the ambulance service staff were trained on the new system.

After a year, it became evident that the laptop system was not generating the reports necessary to improve billing. In late 2004, the pilot project was modified to use a new system called HealthEMS (https://healthems.com), an online data collection system. A first responder completes an encounter form, then this encounter form is scanned, and the information is then available online through HealthEMS. HealthEMS can also be integrated with third party billing systems.  Once this integration occurs, information regarding the run is automatically available for billing purposes.  As a result, billing efficiency has increased tremendously and the use of this system has speeded up the whole billing process.  In addition to the increase in billing efficiency, the data can be used to identify areas of EMS system changes that would lead to performance/quality of care improvement. The data available includes: total number of runs by agency, reason for transport, number of runs by category, time from dispatch to time en route, cardiac/respiratory arrest, and medication usage. 

New encounter forms are currently being created by the ScanHealth company, and these new encounter forms will include more NHTSA indicators for data collection.  A meeting to review the accomplishments of the project was held in Sierra Vista on July 21, 2006. This meeting included the critical access hospitals and their corresponding EMS agencies in Cochise County.

If you have any questions about the Southeast Arizona EMS Performance Improvement Initiative Pilot Project, call Joyce Hospodar at (520) 626-2432 or e-mail her at hospodar@u.arizona.edu.