Integrating Emergency Medical Services Into Health Systems for Continuous and Resilient Care.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Systems Research
• Emergency Medicine

Background:

• Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are critical for acute care and public health.
• Prehospital data is often disconnected from hospital and patient outcomes.
• Fragmented data flows impede quality assurance and crisis preparedness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine how unidirectional data flows in EMS impact quality assurance, system learning, and crisis preparedness.
• To use Switzerland as a case study to illustrate these challenges.
• To propose solutions for improving EMS data exchange.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data flows across the EMS rescue chain.
• Consideration of regulatory context, handover practices, and international models.
• Support from existing registry initiatives and a conceptual systems framework.

Main Results:

• Information is generated in silos with limited outcome feedback, reducing evaluation to operational metrics.
• Decentralized governance and lack of national standards exacerbate data fragmentation in Switzerland.
• Outcome tracking is feasible with minimal standardized datasets, as shown by existing registries.

Conclusions:

• Bidirectional EMS data exchange is essential for creating learning health systems.
• A national EMS minimum dataset with mandatory reporting and outcome feedback is needed.
• This would enhance transparency, quality improvement, and emergency care resilience.