Performance measurements in emergency medical services.
With the strong encouragement of leading health care agencies, business principles are being implemented throughout health care, including emergency medical services (EMS). The reason is simple--quality of care can be enhanced by incorporating the management concepts of continuous quality improvement (CQI). The CQI process couples carefully identified, measurable performance indicators with information systems to monitor, analyze, and trend data. Benchmarking outcomes with other EMS systems allows the identification of "best practices" and the evolution of standards. Emergency medical services professionals must actively participate with the broader health care community in creating performance measurements to ensure that high-quality care is delivered consistently.
Dunford
James
J
City of San Diego EMS and Department of Emergency Medicine, UCSD Medical Center, California 92103, USA. jdunford@ucsd.edu
Domeier
Robert M
RM
Blackwell
Thomas
T
Mears
Gregory
G
Overton
Jerry
J
Rivera-Rivera
Edgardo J
EJ
Swor
Robert
R
D019985:Benchmarking; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D011786:Quality Control; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D017749:Total Quality Management; D014481:United States