The emergency medical services safety champions

The overarching mission of prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) is to deliver lifesaving care for people when their needs are greatest. Fulfilling this mission is challenged by threats to patient and provider safety. The EMS setting is a high-risk one because care is delivered rapidly in the out-of-hospital setting where resources of benefit to patients are limited. There is growing evidence that safety culture varies widely across EMS agencies. A poor safety culture may manifest as error in medication, back injuries, and other poor outcomes for patient and provider. Recently, federal and national leaders of EMS (ie, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) have made improving EMS safety culture a national priority. Unfortunately, few initiatives can help local EMS leaders achieve that priority. The authors describe the successful EMS Champs Fellowship program, supported by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, designed to train EMS leaders to improve safety for patients and providers.