As AI tools move quickly from concept to deployment, EMS leaders face practical questions about value, risk and readiness. This series provides clear, applied guidance for chiefs, directors and agency leaders on how to evaluate and implement AI to support clinical care, reduce documentation burden, improve decision-making, streamline operations and simplify workforce management.
Real-time data, AI-powered insights and improved interoperability are helping EMS agencies reduce fragmentation, enhance situational awareness and improve responder safety
SPOTLIGHT ON AI
Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore on recognizing EMS as an essential service with the funding and career pathways to match
LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS
Ricardo Martinez was 20 when he got his first job as a 911 dispatcher; he quickly found out that the job wasn’t going to get easier but harder
EMS doesn’t have an actual paramedic shortage; instead, EMS has a shortage of paramedics willing to work for low wages in terrible working conditions
Improving driving and passenger safety behavior is an immediate action for EMS leaders as safety innovations diffuse through new ambulance purchases
Weigh the expected costs in time and money against a product’s effectiveness in eliminating pathogens
Move beyond a hospital towel and spray bottle of disinfectant with specialized tools to fully eliminate dangerous pathogens from ambulances
Operations policies, driver and occupant training and behavior change come before and during the implementation of new ambulance safety innovations
Imagine how ambulance design and safety can improve when motivation and the desire to do the right thing come together to drive change
Focus on controlling what you can and leave the big picture to other people
Here’s a summary of the types of questions the Eagles asked one another from the last year