emergency medical service

emergency medical service (EMS)

a network of services coordinated to provide aid and medical assistance from primary response to definitive care, involving personnel trained in the rescue, stabilization, transportation, and advanced treatment of traumatic or medical emergencies. Linked by a communication system that operates on both a local and a regional level, EMS is a tiered system of care, which is usually initiated by citizen action in the form of a telephone call to an emergency number. Subsequent stages include the emergency medical dispatch, first medical responder, ambulance personnel, medium and heavy rescue equipment, and paramedic units, if necessary. In the hospital, service is provided by emergency department nurses, emergency department physicians, specialists, and critical care nurses and physicians. See also emergency medical technician, emergency medical technician-advanced life support, emergency medical technician-intermediate, emergency medical technician-intravenous, emergency medical technician-paramedic.

emergency medical service

A system, created by the US government in 1973 that provides emergency care intimately linked to a universal emergency telephone number, 911; the care is provided from vehicles, ie ambulance or helicopter, by certified and licensed personnel–eg, emergency medical technicians, in restricted geographic regions; EMS services include: emergency medical communications, transportation, disaster plans, consumer training programs. See Air ambulance, EMT-A, EMT-D, EMT-I. Cf First responder.