Q: What is the EMS Quality Improvement Partnership?
A: The EMS Quality Improvement Partnership is a national EMS performance improvement collaborative focused on improving safety and the quality of care for EMS across the U.S.A. It’s lead by the National EMS Quality Alliance. 

A: The aim is to improve safety and effectiveness of prehospital airway management. This will be built around several NEMSQA measures including Airway-18 (waveform capnography to confirm and monitor invasive airways, Respiratory-02 (oxygen administration) and Airway-01 (first pass success without hypoxia or hypotension). The specific improvement goal will be determined after baseline data from participating agencies is obtained. 

Q: Will there only be support for improving the medicine or will there be a focus on improvement science, too?
A: While the goal of the project is to improve airway management safety and effectiveness, much of the project will focus on learning improvement science as a means of effecting that clinical change.

Q: Who should participate in the EMS Quality Improvement Partnership?
A: EMS agencies or systems throughout the U.S.A. including urban, rural, suburban, large, small, volunteer, and paid, regardless of their model of service provision

Q: Does my agency have to perform endotracheal intubation to participate?
A: No. Agencies that perform any invasive airway procedures, including only supraglottic airways, are eligible to participate. Only agencies that perform endotracheal intubation (for patients who are not in cardiac arrest) will report the Airway-01 measure.

Q: How many agencies or systems can participate in the EMS Quality Improvement Partnership?
A: There is room for up to 50 agencies.

Q: Is there a cost to participate in the EMS Quality Improvement Partnership?
A: There is no cost to participate but participating agencies must be NEMSQA agency members which has a cost of $250/year (prorated after June 30). Agencies will be required to maintain membership for the duration of the project. Memberships renew at the start of every year.

Q: When will the EMS Quality Improvement Partnership Airway Management Collaborative start?
A: The first learning session will be in September 2024.

Q: How long will the EMS Quality Improvement Partnership last?
A: It will last approximately 15-18 months.

Q: What kind of time commitment will the EMS Quality Improvement Partnership involve?
A: There will be three or four, 4-hour long Learning Sessions over the course of the project plus a small amount of information sharing each month.

Q: Beside attending the learning sessions, are there other requirements for participation?
A: Participants will be expected to share performance data, the results of their tests of change ideas using the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) framework, and what they are learning about implementing these changes in their own system.

Q: Who are the faculty experts supporting this improvement project?
A: The collaborative faculty include experts in airway management science, quality improvement science and implementation experts and leaders who have demonstrated improvements in their own practice. A complete list of faculty is available on the website.