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EMS

EMS

About EMS

The purpose of the Unified Fire Authority Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Division is to Support Emergency Operations personnel with their delivery of excellent and effective patient care to the citizens and communities we serve. The EMS Division assists UFA personnel with obtaining and maintaining required EMS Licensure. These efforts are facilitated by delivering initial and continuing medical training and education to UFA personnel. UFA EMS Division assists personnel by assigning and tracking necessary training hours through learning management system software, Vector Solutions. Specific training hours are required for EMS Professional Licensure by Utah Bureau of Emergency Medical Services and Preparedness (BEMSP) and National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT). The EMS Division assists personnel with the biannual re-licensure process. We focus our training efforts utilizing accepted National Standards, American Heart Guidelines, State and local protocols and best practice principals. EMS service delivery is continually evaluated with a Quality Assurance/Continuous Quality Improvement (QA/CQI) process with the goal of improving patient care and patient outcomes and providing personnel with professional development opportunities to sharpen and hone their skills as EMS providers.

Services Provided:

Initial Education and Quality Assurance
  • EMT Course for new firefighter hires needing EMS licensure
  • EMT Course for civilians
  • Support of Advanced EMT training (External)
  • Paramedic Training (UFRA Facilitated)
  • Quality Assurance & Continuous Quality Improvement (QA/CQI)
  • EMS Skills verification (New Hire & existing personnel)
  • American Heart Guidelines and Certifications for personnel, CPR, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) & Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
  • American Heart Association Training Center Coordination
  • Training Equipment Maintenance
Continuing Education
  • Continuing Medical Education (CME)
  • Scenario based medical training
  • EMS Committee Management
  • Sponsored Seminars & Training
  • Training partners with area hospitals and other EMS agencies
  • Associate and Community Instruction
  • Naloxone Education Support
Support & Outreach
  • Support Community CPR/Push to Survive/Stop the Bleed/Naloxone Initiative
  • Records Management (Data Collection)
  • Ambulance Billing and Review
  • Report Review/Evaluation
  • Hospital Interface & Partnership
  • Medication Tracking (Controlled Substances) Target Solutions Check It
  • Service on Outside Agency Committees: State/District/Alliance

Division Leader

EMS Division Chief

Rob Ayres

Organizational Structure

FY22/23 Accomplishments

  • 1,108 American Heart Association certifications issued to the public by UFA AHA instructors
    • 130 ACLS
    • 802 BLS
    • 18 Heartsaver CPR
    • 90 Heartsaver CPR/First Aid
    • 68 PALS
  • 29 students attended and passed the UFA public EMT course
  • 8 new UFA firefighter recruits attended and passed the internal EMT course
  • UFA personnel sponsored in Paramedic School
    • 6 Completed
    • 4 In process
  • 136 EMS Case reviews facilitated with Station Crews and Hospital Representatives
  • 240 Patient follow up reports facilitated from hospital partners to EMS crews
  • Department-wide renewal for PALS certification
  • Transition to American Heart Resuscitation Quality Improvement (RQI) in October of 2022
  • Successful transition to ESO incident reporting software
  • Quarterly in person station training program implemented in July, 2022
  • Quarterly Case review and special topic Medical Director training provided
  • Monthly Medical Director ride-along and field observation shifts implemented
  • Quarterly Airway Academy and Cadaver Lab training provided
  • UFA EMS protocol and medication guidelines updates project ongoing
  • Provided EMS skills assessments for 147 new employees, lateral hires and part-time EMS candidates in 2022

FY23/24 Action Items

  • Increased focus and Medical Director involvement with the QA/CQI process to improve patient care and provide needed support and training opportunities for UFA EMS providers
  • Continued emphasis on providing worthwhile and applicable Quarterly scenario based hands-on medical training opportunities to on-duty crews
  • Re-write of existing QA Policy and establishment of annual EMS Quality Improvement Plan
  • Continued ongoing EMS policy and protocol review
  • Continued efforts to reevaluate and refine UFA’s process for controlled substance inventory, tracking and accountability, ensuring compliance with DEA and State of Utah DOPL Rules, Laws and requirements. This will enable real time tracking of controlled substances and facilitate more efficient supply restocking procedures
  • Provide support to UFA personnel with EMS licensing process – this includes training, tracking, and documentation through LMS and providing needed training to fulfill NREMT & BEMS licensing requirements
  • Continue to develop EMS Skills evaluation for all licensure levels and development process/program
  • Utilize data from electronic health reporting program (ESO) to identify areas for improvement opportunities for individual providers and UFA in general
  • Continued efforts with partners and stakeholders to establish an EMS-Hospital Health Data Exchange
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