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Spotlight on EMS Compass at NASEMSO fall meeting

State officials hear lessons learned, next steps for performance measure initiative

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Following a year of intense work, the EMS Compass initiative held a town hall meeting at the NASEMSO fall conference in Louisville on October 14.

The initiative, a two-year cooperative agreement between NASEMSO and NHTSA’s Office of EMS, was created to develop a process for designing performance measures that would help EMS systems’ efforts to improve patient care and operations.

At the meeting, Bob Bass, chair of the EMS Compass Steering Committee, updated the audience on the initiative’s status, acknowledging the work of nearly 50 volunteers who provided their time and expertise in this effort.

The Steering Committee and work groups are currently considering developing performance measures in several areas, including clinical conditions such as stroke, STEMI, cardiac arrest, seizures and trauma, as well as others such as safety and population health.

Performance measures related to stroke care were released in July for public comment and review by the steering committee. Based on the comments and feedback, the stroke measures are being revised and will be released again in the next several weeks again for public comment.

“The review process worked as designed,” Bass said. “While one of our goals is to develop a small set of core measures, the most important result of EMS Compass will be the creation of a sustainable process to thoroughly and thoughtfully design and test measures for use by the EMS community.”

Bass addressed some misperceptions about the initiative and reemphasized three basic messages for state officials and the EMS community:

  • EMS Compass performance measures are being created to improve patient care.
  • A fundamental goal of the initiative is to create a road map for the process of creating and testing a performance measure.
  • The EMS Compass initiative followed the model established by the National Quality Forum (NQF) format because it provided a proven path to creating performance measures that has been widely accepted in the health care community. There is no intent for this initiative to submit measures to the NQF.

The next Steering Committee is scheduled for Jan. 13 in San Diego, California.

Visit emscompass.org/ems-compass-is-is-not/ to learn more about the aims of the EMS Compass initiative.

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