Rural/Metro joins top EMS-ranked agencies
Rural/Metro Fire Department of Yuma County has now also been recognized by the Arizona Department of Health Services as a premier emergency medical system agency.
“It's the state recognizing that Rural/Metro has worked very hard to continue to grow as a company, both with our documentation and our quality assurance, but also with our EMS training, by using the newest and most current practices in EMS medicine that we are allowed to use,” said Rural/Metro spokeswoman Charly McMurdie.
“This is a certificate they don't award lightly. You have to go through a lot of training, and there is a lot of learning involved, just to even begin this process.”
In receiving the prestigious distinction, Rural/Metro becomes one of a small handful of agencies recognized as “Premier Agencies” in the state of Arizona, and only the third in Yuma County. The city of Yuma Fire Department and Tri-Valley Ambulance have also received the certification.
Rural/Metro is also the only agency in Yuma County to have both the Arizona Department of Health Services' Premier Emergency Medical System Agency certificate and its Excellence in Prehospital Injury Care (EPIC)-Traumatic Brain Injury certification for prehospital care.
McMurdie explained that the Premier EMS Agency Program (PEAP), which is voluntary, is the DHS' prehospital care quality improvement initiative given to agencies that meet very specific requirements in one of two categories of EMS service.
She said that an agency that meets at least two of the four PEAP requirements is considered a “Participating Agency.” Agencies that meet all four PEAP requirements, as Rural/Metro has just done, are recognized as a “Premier Agency.”
The PEAP requirements include:
• Documenting agency leadership commitment.
• Developing a quality improvement program.
• Collecting and submitting electronic EMS patient care reports.
• Ensuring data is fed back into the quality improvement program for analysis and improvement of care.
Rural/Metro says it is also the only private ambulance provider in Arizona trained to the highest state standards in multiple counties (Maricopa, Pinal, Pima and Yuma).
James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854. Find him on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/YSJamesGilbert or on Twitter @YSJamesGilbert.
