Consensus-building, collaboration, and supporting significant national projects are the hallmarks of NHTSA’s contributions to EMS system development. An efficient EMS system is integral to reducing injury and mortality on and off our Nation’s highways, and is key to ensuring prompt emergency response to any type of illness or injury. The Nation’s best preparation for any incident, large or small, is a comprehensive EMS system, ready every day for every emergency.
Our Mission
To reduce death and disability by providing leadership and coordination to the EMS community in assessing, planning, developing, and promoting comprehensive, evidence-based emergency medical services and 9-1-1 systems.
Working in coorperation with our peers and the EMS community enables us to leverage resources, promote the most innovative ideas, and accelerate the development of advanced EMS systems. NHTSA supports two collaborative bodies established to gather critical stakeholder input and prioritize EMS initiatives for the Nation. The Federal Interagency Committee on EMS (
FICEMS) includes representatives from the federal agencies responsible for EMS programming, while the National EMS Advisory Council (
NEMSAC) is composed of trusted leaders in the EMS community who advise NHTSA on its projects and the future of EMS nationwide.
The best decisions are those that are informed by timely, accurate data. NHTSA has taken a leading role in identifying the types of information required by researchers and EMS leaders, developing the protocols for collecting this data, and building the databases to store and analyze critical statistics. Learn more about the
National EMS Information System, and plans to improve the consistency of
EMS workforce data, which will inform workforce planning and practitioner and patient safety procedures.
NHTSA and a team of independent subject matter experts have developed the guidelines against which we can measure the health of our
Nation’s EMS systems, and have evaluated statewide EMS systems in all 50 states. Given the varied ways in which EMS services are delivered at the National, State, and local levels, benchmarking current performance is a critical step in building better systems.