Audits from the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS) play an essential role in ensuring the continued safety of your organization. The commission provides standards for both air and surface emergency medical transport. Audits are necessary to maintain accreditation, and the audits are incredibly strict.
While CAMTS is an independent organization and the accreditation is voluntary, many jurisdictions require EMS organizations to maintain those standards. Even when they are not necessary, those standards are intended to improve the quality of emergency medical response and the safety of responders across all organizations. Every organization and its employees can benefit from implementing and meeting these criteria.
Preparing for a CAMTS audit is a significant undertaking that will cover every area of an EMS organization. You may have to provide records and reports that demonstrate performance improvement, quality management, safety management, patient care competency, communications protocols, and vehicle operation.
Providing a Framework for Training and Certifications
Managing ongoing training and continuous skills competency for your EMS organization can be a difficult task. An EMS management system provides the tools you need to ensure that your staff’s training is up to date and documented. Any overlooked certifications can cause you to fail the CAMTS audit.
Failing the CAMTS can be extremely costly, and your team likely can’t afford a major setback like that. So be careful! Don’t trust traditional administrative systems to do the job. These can lead to gaps and oversights and general disorganization. Instead, use an EMS management system as a framework for your organization.
It is important to stay up to date on training and have the capacity to find and present records to the auditors. The EMS management system provides quick and convenient access to files on all team members that will be necessary during the audit.
Vehicle Maintenance and Checklists
CAMTS has a very strong focus on transportation processes and procedures. Their programs monitor and evaluate both air and surface emergency transport services, and they use extensive checklists for rating organizations in terms of maintenance, procedures, and training.
An EMS management system’s integrated checklists and records provide a suitable framework for continuous maintenance of your vehicles. Notifications to the proper staff members ensure that essential maintenance and inspections are not missed.
Thorough maintenance and incident logs will be one part of the CAMTS audit, and an EMS system centralizes all of those records for organization and easy access. Being unable to find relevant information readily is something that these audits look for.
Incident Reports
A key area of the audit is how your organization handles incident reports effectively and reliably. Any reports that have not been addressed with full loop closure will strongly count against your organization. An EMS management system ensures that the relevant personnel sees all reports.
The records within your EMS management system will provide evidence of your incident report procedures in action. They will enable your organization to demonstrate this during your CAMTS audit.
To find out more about the versatile tools included in our EMS management system, reach out to Sales@ninthbrain.com for your consultation.