In 2005 and 2007, the North Central EMS Institute and 5 partners sponsored the EMS industry's national consensus meetings on outcome indicators. To learn more, click on the EMS Outcomes tab at the top of this page.

In 2005, we cosponsored Six Sigma for EMS & Fire quality improvement training in Minnesota with the National EMS Management Association, HealthAnalytics, and North Carolina University.

In 2004 we collaborated with a number of state and national organizations encouraging CMS to include EMS providers in the 8th Scope of Work for CMS Quality Improvement Organizations. To learn more, click on the QIO tab at the top of this page.

In 2001 the North Central EMS Institute participated in an Amicus Brief filing with the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

In 2001 we collaborated with the Minnesota Rural Health Association, Minnesota Rural Partners, the American Heart Association and the Minnesota Ambulance Association in delivering comments to the federal HHS initiative on rural communities.

The North Central EMS Institute has analyzed the impact of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act on EMS agencies. In 2000, we issued a white paper:

"Protecting America’s Final Health Care Safety Net: Emergency Medical Services"

To learn more, click on the White Paper tab at the top of this page.

What is the average number of volunteer EMTs needed to adequately provide ambulance service to 5,000 people over 500 square miles? How does that compare to how many volunteers you have?

The North Central EMS Institute has developed benchmarks definitions for the ambulance industry. We are already beginning to identify some best-practices based on the limited information in our data repository.

What is the cost per mile for ambulance vehicle maintenance in an urban environment using employed mechanics in a fleet larger than 10? Using the local car dealer? Using a specialty fleet maintenance vendor?

We are writing and testing demographic and benchmark data for the areas of:

• General Business Administration
• Business Office
• Dispatch
• Fleet Management
  

If an ambulance service the same size as yours was able to bill twice as many calls with half the staff, would you be interested in how they did it? Unit Hour Utilization can be an effective tool for measuring productivity in urban markets, how do you measure rural productivity?

We are currently seeking participants to contribute their data to our data set, and in the process test our definitions.

How many volunteer ambulance services pay volunteers some amount of money per hour while on-call? A stipend per run? What amounts are they paying?

All of the current participants are full-time providers. None of them are hospital providers. We are seeking to add volunteer and hospital-based agencies into our data pool.

If you are interested in participating in this process, click on the Benchmarks tab at the top of this page.