National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS)

Abstract

The absence of emergency medical services (EMS) patient care data has hindered development andevaluation of EMS systems. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in cooperation with the Health Resources andServices Administration (HRSA), has provided funding to the National Association of State EMS Directors to develop a National EMS Information System (NEMSIS). NEMSIS is being designed to provide a uniform national EMS dataset, with standard terms, definitions, andvalues, as well as a national EMS database, with aggregated data from all states on a limited number of data elements. Forty-eight of the states, the District of Columbia, andthree territories signed a memorandum of agreement documenting support for the NEMSIS project andexpressing a desire for full implementation of the NEMSIS dataset. NHTSA has agreed to house the National EMS Database at its National Center for Statistics andAnalysis. NHTSA, in cooperation with HRSA andthe Centers for Disease Control andPrevention, recently entered into a cooperative agreement with the University of Utah School of Medicine to operate a NEMSIS Technical Assistance Center that will provide related assistance to official EMS agencies andto commercial software vendors. The Technical Assistance Center will also biannually assess state andterritorial capabilities to provide data to the national EMS database. NEMSIS will provide a uniform national EMS dataset, with standard terms, definitions, andvalues, as well as a national EMS database, with aggregated data from all states on a limited number of data elements. Many of the potential benefits of implementation of NEMSIS are enumerated in this report.

Key words:

• emergency medical services
• information systems
• dataset.