The quality of emergency medical services

Although Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is a crucial part of the health care system, there is relatively little research on the quality of those services. EMS agencies often measure their performance using criteria such as response time or total prehospital time. But larger scale studies that cross counties and providers are rare. This Issue Brief summarizes two studies that use comprehensive, longitudinal data from one state to assess the demographic, geographic, and professional factors that affect EMS performance.