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Attention All EMS Agencies and Software Vendors
With increasing frequency, many EMS agencies respond to calls for help that actually become wellness checks, lift assists, and cancellations. While these responses impact an agency’s
operational budget, reimbursement for these services is not likely. After discussing these issues and reviewing the submitted EMS Incident Reporting System (EMSIRS) data, the Rural and System Development Committees of the Ohio Emergency Medical, Fire, and
Transportation Services Board (EMFTS) have discovered that many of the related call disposition choices have been disabled by vendors and/or reporting EMS agencies. These data would be useful for creating a statewide benchmark as a reference to better understand
the total impact of these calls on a service’s bottom line. Reporting these incidents will provide valuable information related to the unreported and unreimbursed services that strain already limited EMS resources.
We request that you please work with your software vendors and EMS agencies to ensure that all appropriate lists, menus, and options are available within your EPCR systems. We recommend
starting with a review of eDisposition fields 12,16,17,18 to ensure all selections listed in the data dictionary are available in your systems. You should also confirm with your software vendors that non-transportation events will be entered and transmitted
to EMSIRS as part of your normal data submissions.
For those of you using the state’s EMSIRS web-entry portal, a redesign that will be implemented later this year will facilitate reporting these types of responses. The EMSIRS data dictionary
containing detailed field and drop-down information can be found at
https://www.ems.ohio.gov/links/ems_EMSIRS3DataDictionary.pdf.
Thank you for your attention and cooperation in this matter. Your assistance is appreciated as we work to improve Ohio’s EMS system based on robust data collection, analysis, and information sharing.
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