EMS Awards and Accreditations

The UMC EMS communications center is one of only 189 communications centers worldwide to achieve recognition as an Accredited Center of Excellence by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch. The IAED is the world’s leading standard-setting and certification body for emergency dispatch.

Comprised of three allied academies for medical, fire, and police dispatching, the IAED supports first responder-related research, unified protocol application, legislation for emergency call center regulation, and strengthening the emergency dispatch community through education, certification, and accreditation.

One of the most significant official recognitions of the academy is communications center accreditation. Accredited Centers share a common goal of improving public care and maximizing the efficiency of 911 systems. Based on a total quality management process, dispatch and communications centers can attain “Center of Excellence” designation by demonstrating superior performance in training, quality assurance and improvement processes and/or management, and very high compliance to protocol. UMC’s center achieved accreditation in January 2017.

After a multi-year process, UMC has been accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS).

In order to be accredited, our EMS practices needed to exceed federal and state requirements and meet the highest standards in the industry. There are five major steps in the CAAS accreditation process, and UMC EMS received perfect scores on all elements of the review.

  1. a self-assessment was conducted where UMC EMS’ practices were compared to the Commission’s Standards for Accreditation of Ambulance Services and any necessary changes were implemented
  2. a self-assessment was conducted where UMC EMS’ practices were compared to the Commission’s Standards for Accreditation of Ambulance Services and any necessary changes were implemented
  3. the Commission evaluated UMC EMS’ application and conducted an off-site review
  4. an on-site review was completed; consisting of facility, vehicle and equipment inspections as well as observations and interviews with communications, clinical, maintenance, training and leadership staff to verify UMC EMS met the Commission’s standards
  5. the CAAS Panel of Commissioners deliberated and conferred accreditation

This new accreditation is a distinction that places UMC EMS among the very highest performing EMS agencies in the world; we now enter the ranks as only 1 of 46 agencies worldwide to be a CAAS accredited agency and an International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED) Accredited Center of Excellence.

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