Agency Spotlight

Leon County EMS

Leon County EMS (LCEMS) was recently awarded EMS Magazine's Gold Award. This Award is given annually to an EMS service that has proven its abilities in the areas of innovations in EMS education and training, injury and illness prevention projects, public education projects, worker safety and well-being programs, and much more.  In a state where outstanding, high-quality EMS is the standard, Leon County EMS of Tallahassee, Florida, is no exception.  The agency has taken a leadership role in local prehospital issues and in statewide initiatives such as the EMSTARS program, and has a strong commitment to public education and citizen safety.  LCEMS has also been recognized as a Heart Ready County for its efforts in AED distribution and training.  The agency's quality management program is progressive.  Recently, Six Sigma processes have begun to be incorporated into the Quality Management program and will be enhanced with a new data collection system and quality management data tracking system.

Please join the EMSTARS project in congratulating this outstanding service.

For more information on this award, please visit EMS Magazine's web site.

Headlines

2009 EMSTARS Training Workshops

The Bureau of EMS is pleased to announce its schedule for the 2009 EMSTARS Training Workshops.  This year four workshop opportunities are being conducted at sites across the state in May and June.  As with previous data workshops, there will be plenty of information delivery, discussion, and feedback.  The Bureau is also pleased to announce that it received some limited federal grant funding to assist with reimbursement of travel expenses for workshop participants.  (Due to grant restrictions, reimbursement is available for participants from licensed EMS agencies only.)

To ensure that the subject matter covered at each workshop meets the needs of the participants and to ensure adequate materials are available for all attendees, participants must register and indicate their subject area needs.  Please register soon! Each workshop has a designated cap and attendees must request a reserved seat at the training location of their choice.  Some locations will have more available seating than others, and reservations will be confirmed on a first-come-first-served basis.  Registration will be closed once those caps are reached.  The deadline for registration for the workshops is Monday, April 13. 

Workshop Schedule and Registration

Grant Funding Opportunities

The 2009 FDOT EMS grant applications have been reviewed and evaluated.  EMS agencies will receive results within the next two weeks.

NEMSIS Reporting

Once again, Florida is at the forefront! Florida is the tenth state to begin reporting prehospital data to the National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS) Database.

Emergency Medical Services Tracking and Reporting System (EMSTARS) is the repository of Florida EMS prehospital incident level data from licensed EMS agencies in the state. The Florida Department of Health (DOH), Bureau of Emergency Medical Services (BEMS) implemented this program in July 2008 to enable the collection of a set of data elements (Florida EMS Dataset) that will provide specific, useful, actionable information to facilitate the continued improvements in EMS service and patient care statewide.

NEMSIS Upload

Congratulations again! Florida has provided another prehospital data upload to the national database, NEMSIS. Florida continues to be a "stand out" state with its early participation in the national program. Florida has an overall total of 382,580 records in the national database. Visit the NEMSIS website to view the reports.