The Emergency Medical Services Section has primary responsibility for facilitating the statewide data collection, analysis, surveillance, and reporting of EMS data.

Emergency Medical Services Tracking and Reporting System (EMSTARS)  

The Florida Department of Health continues its commitment to ensuring quality EMS services.

Emergency Medical Services Tracking and Reporting System (EMSTARS) was created to collect incident level records of emergency calls from EMS agencies, resulting in the subsequent analysis for benchmarking and identifying quality improvement initiatives. The EMSTARS database collects a subset of nationally recognized EMS data from the National EMS Information System (NEMSIS).

Prehospital Aggregate System 

This system was implemented in 2002 and provides aggregated EMS agency response information. EMS agencies are required to complete a quarterly report of the volume and type of calls that were completed. Upon receipt of this report, EMS Section staff enter the information into a Structured Query Language (SQL) database. These data do not provide incident level specific information and cannot be used to assess the complete continuum of care. Agencies not currently reporting to EMSTARS utilize this system to report prehospital aggregate data to the Department.

Aggregate Prehospital Quarterly Report Form

EMS Aggregate Prehospital and Provider Profile Information Form (DH 1304) Instruction Manual

Emergency Medical Oversight
Continuum of Care Data Warehouse  

The data warehouse currently hosts data from the EMSTARS patient care records that are linked with hospital discharge and emergency department data from the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). A comprehensive data warehouse business strategy is under development to enhance this capability to ensure valid health information is accessible when and where it is needed to improve and protect Florida’s health and well-being.

Data Request and Use  

The Department encourages the use of EMS data for the advancement of medical research. Additionally, EMSTARS data should be used for local, regional, and state-level quality improvement efforts.

EMS Data Reports and Research – Aggregated Florida reports and data request forms.