Essentia Health EMS teams earn clinical excellence awards

Essentia Health is proud to announce that our EMS teams serving Ada, Buhl, Detroit Lakes, Fosston, Moose Lake and Sandstone, as well as their surrounding communities, have each received the EMS Clinical Excellence Award from the Minnesota Emergency Medical Services Regulatory Board (EMSRB). These teams are recognized for providing exceptional clinical care in 2023.

"I couldn't be prouder of the exemplary care our Essentia Health EMS professionals deliver every day to the citizens and communities we are privileged to serve," said Joe Newton, emergency medical services senior director for Essentia. "We strive to provide the right care to every patient, every time, at the highest quality. It's rewarding to find out we increased the number of our locations receiving this prestigious award from four in 2022 to six.

"This wouldn't have been possible without the hard work and dedication of our professionals."

In 2022, working with EMS physicians from across the state, the EMSRB established multiple clinical advisory performance measures that could be used to benchmark and highlight the work of Minnesota's EMTs and paramedics. To qualify for this prestigious distinction, EMS services had to achieve a performance rate of 80% or higher in five or more individual performance measures. There are nine clinical performance measures, gauging things such as response times and proper patient assessments.

"This award is a credit to your organization, leadership, the involvement of your Medical Director and, most of all, the exemplary care and documentation performed by your dedicated crew members," said Dylan Ferguson, executive director of the EMSRB. "You should be proud of the care that your organization provides to the communities and citizens you serve."

At Essentia Health, our EMS is part of an integrated care team ranging from our professional pre-hospital staff to our highly skilled emergency department caregivers. We respond to about 13,000 requests for service annually and transport more than 10,000 patients in our communities.