EMS/Pre-Hospital Care

The Pre-hospital Care or Emergency Medical Services (EMS) department at St. Elizabeth Healthcare is designed to support our regional EMS community by providing high quality patient care through collaborative educational programming, medical direction and communications.

At St. Elizabeth Healthcare EMS, we strive to provide our partners with the education and tools necessary to provide seamless care to our patients and our community. We know that by working as a team we can ensure that the communities of Northern Kentucky receive the best care possible.

It is our goal that this site makes your job easier by providing you with the resources and information necessary to do your job to the best of your ability. Whether your experience with the St. Elizabeth Emergency Department exceeds or fails to meet your expectations, we want to know about it.

Patient Care Follow-up

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are required to have a quality assurance (QA) process in place, designed to improve the quality of care offered by pre-hospital care providers. Patient outcome information is essential to an effective QA process. Any EMS provider that was involved in the care of a patient brought to any St. Elizabeth Healthcare Emergency Department may request follow-up information.

Please Note: All requests must be made in writing and must include the following information:

  • Patient Name
  • Patient Date of Birth
  • Gender
  • Social Security Number
  • Chief Complaint or Mechanism of Injury
  • Date and Time of Run
  • Transporting Unit Along with Department’s QA Coordinator or Designee

In addition to request in writing, EMS professionals can also email us at ems.coordinator@stelizabeth.com or by phone at 859-301-4EMS (4367). Additionally, in November 2017, we purchased ESO-Health Data Exchange (HDE) to help streamline and automate the patient outcome processes for EMS. This changes everything. ESO Health Data Exchange bridges the data gap between EMS and the hospital, with bidirectional data sharing to support operational and quality process needs -all secure, all auditable, and all in real time. True data interoperability is here.

All patient information will be sent to your department’s QA Coordinator or Designee.

Disclaimer: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA) helps to assure that citizens’ medical records are kept private. In some instances, HIPAA allows disclosure of health information without individual authorization, including disclosures between healthcare providers for “quality assurance” activities. Specifically, HIPAA provides that “a covered entity (including a hospital) may disclose protected health information to another covered entity (including an EMS provider) for healthcare operations’ activities of the entity that receives the information, if each entity either has or had a relationship with the individual who is the subjection of the protected health information being requested, the protected health information pertains to such relationship, and the disclosure is for conducting quality assessment and improvement activities.” Whenever information is released, HIPAA mandates that disclosures are restricted to the minimum amount necessary to accomplish the relevant purpose of the request.

EMS & Paramedic Certification

In the field of emergency medical services (EMS), there are three levels of certifications for providers of care: Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), Advanced EMT’s and Paramedics.

Both EMT levels and paramedics have the knowledge and skills to transport patients and provide them with emergency care. The biggest difference between them is the amount of education they receive and the level of care they are qualified to provide.

Medical Direction & Control Calls

All Emergency Medical Services (EMS) agencies use a medical command center as a base of operations. The St. Elizabeth Emergency Department is a base station for the paramedics in the field. St. Elizabeth Emergency Room Physicians are available by radio or phone to give medical advice, approve medication orders, direct resuscitation and end of life efforts, explain to patients the consequences of refusing treatment and clarify protocols. This service is provided to EMS agencies throughout Northern Kentucky.

In addition to the radio reports, we are also heavily using Pulsara as a bi-directional communication tool. Implementation of Pulsara has garnered
St. Elizabeth national attention. A research poster was presented at the annual Institute for Healthcare Improvement Symposium in Orlando, FL in December 2018.

Contact Us

If you have any suggestions, comments or complaints, please contact us by email at ems.coordinator@stelizabeth.com or by phone at (859) 301-4EMS (4367).