Emergency Medical Services (EMS)

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is a critical partner in developing a new trauma center as most patients receive their initial medical care in the field by EMTs and Paramedics and are then transported to the Trauma Center to continue resuscitation. Collaboration with EMS at the state, regional, and local level was an integral part of a successful implementation plan for a new Level 1 Trauma Center at University of Chicago. Across the country, each state typically has the authority to define and regulate EMS Systems and Trauma Centers. The State of Illinois is divided into eleven EMS Regions which allows standardization of many policies between the EMS Systems. Each EMS System has a Resource Hospital with an EMS Medical Director that is responsible for all prehospital clinical care within that geographical area. Coordination of EMS and Trauma care is done at the Resource Hospital level with input from regional advisory boards. Maintaining EMS Protocols, Policies, and Procedures that are up to date with consensus or evidence-based recommendations for prehospital care is an important job of the EMS Medical Director as it defines the medical care in the out of hospital environment prior to handoff at the Trauma Center. The impact of adding Trauma Center services to a busy, urban Emergency Department altered overall medical patient throughput but also allowed the hospital to have more active participation in large incident and mass casualty response and elevated the opportunity for training programs including the EMS fellowship.