Contact: AnnualReports@coaemsp.org

The CoAEMSP has extended the deadline for Annual Reports to June 30, 2020 because the health and safety of our volunteers, educators, and students is our top priority.

If you are a program director of a CoAEMSP Letter of Review or CAAHEP accredited Paramedic Program, then you received in January the Excel-based Annual Report form from the email AnnualReports@coaemsp.org. If you did not receive this email, first check your junk and spam folders. If the email is still not there, then email AnnualReports@coaemsp.org and let us know! Annual Reports are due no later than June 30.

The Annual Report is based on the 2018 calendar year and its graduates, and will be due June 30, 2020. This allows the program at minimum one (1) year to gather all relevant data and allows sufficient time to send out and gather results for the Graduate and Employer Surveys for the applicable annual report year.

Paramedic educational programs are required to submit an annual report that encompasses the following three (3) key metrics:

1. Retention

2. Positive Placement

3. Success on the credentialing written (cognitive) exam.

All CAAHEP accredited and CoAEMSP Letter of Review (LoR) programs will be required to complete the Annual Report and publish the outcomes from their annual report on their website. Outcomes will be for the year reported (and no longer based on a 3-year average).

As the CoAEMSP continues to strive to become more outcomes-oriented in its approach to EMS education, the evaluation of identified outcomes measures becomes increasingly important.

When reports are not submitted on time, additional work is incurred by staff – work that can be prevented. Remember, submit on or before June 30!

The CoAEMSP strongly recommends programs use specific language when posting their outcomes to the Paramedic homepage. To make it easy for programs, the sample language below allows the Program to fill in the blanks for their 2018 Outcomes for Retention, NREMT Written Exam and Positive Job Placement. 

Programs may post additional outcomes if they choose. Reminder: the 2018 Outcomes must be verifiable by the 2018 Annual Report.

The recommended language is available here as well as follows:

Paramedic Program Outcomes

CAAHEP Accredited Paramedic Programs and CoAEMSP Letter of Review (LoR) Programs track and report outcome measures annually to the Committee on Accreditation for the Emergency Medical Services Professions (CoAEMSP). 

The most current CoAEMSP Annual Report was for the calendar year 2018.

The most recent success rate for the National Registry of EMT Paramedic/State Cognitive exam was ___%.

The most recent positive placement rate for graduates was ___%. Positive placement is defined by the CoAEMSP as ‘Employed full or part-time in a related field and/or continuing his/her education and/or serving in the military’. Positive placement is measured at completion of the program.

The most recent retention rate was ___%.

Our hearts at the CoAEMSP go out to everyone impacted by COVID-19 (coronavirus). As both higher education professionals and healthcare professionals, we know you have been consumed with addressing the many challenges the virus is causing in your communities.

The CoAEMSP has been closely monitoring the impact of COVID-19 on Paramedic educational programs and their institutions. It is recognized that institutions are preparing or enacting action plans to keep students, faculty, and staff safe; that programs are considering alternative methods for delivery of didactic courses; and that clinical and capstone field sites are enacting plans and processes that might impact clinical and capstone field education.

Because the health and safety of our volunteers, educators, and students is our top priority, the CoAEMSP has

The full statement can be found on the CoAEMSP home page here.

Contact: Heather Parker, heather@coaemsp.org or 214-703-8445, x116

In an effort to save time, streamline processes, reduce data entry, and eliminate additional processing fees, the CoAEMSP is encouraging all programs to pay invoices via Automated Clearing House (ACH).

ACH payments are electronic payments that transfer funds directly from a checking account to the payee. Instead of writing out and mailing a paper check, the money moves automatically.

You may pay invoices by ACH or the View and Pay Invoice option that will appear in the email with the invoice. Credit cards are not accepted. The CoAEMSP will accept checks; however, know that we are moving toward requiring all payments to be made via ACH or View and Pay.

All programs selecting to pay by ACH should email a payment advice to heather@coaemsp.org. (A payment advice provides the details on a payment and provides advance notice to the recipient.)

The advantages of paying via ACH or the View and Pay Invoice are:

•  pay directly through the invoice

•  secure environment

•  payment processes in 3 days instead of 3 weeks (checks)

•  automatically applies to the invoice (less data entry errors)

Below is an example of the ACH Payment Advice, which provides the details on a payment and provides advance notice to the recipient.

Thank you for helping to make the payment process more efficient.

Effective immediately, the Program Director will serve as the Billing Contact for the program. The program is no longer required to submit a personnel contact form for the Billing Contact.

The CoAEMSP Board adopted four new interpretations of the CAAHEP Standards during its February board meeting. The interpretations are NOT part of the CAAHEP Standards and Guidelines document and are subject to change by CoAEMSP. Policy revisions may occur often, so this document should be reviewed frequently to ensure the most current version is being used.

The companion document contains the CAAHEP Standards and Guidelines for the Accreditation of Educational Programs in the Emergency Medical Services Professions with CoAEMSP interpretations adopted by CoAEMSP through policies.

See new Interpretations here.

Complete CoAEMSP Interpretations of the 2015 CAAHEP Standards and Guidelines can be found here.

2015 CAAHEP Standards and Guidelines can be found here.

The CoAEMSP Board provides predictable, consistent, and deliberate communications with its sponsors about the work of the Board. The Board provides official updates via the Board Highlights to each of its 14 sponsors within 30 days of each Board meeting.

These Highlights are shared directly with each of the sponsors’ CEOs following the 30-day moratorium after a Board meeting as well as posted here for review by anyone, including students, graduates, faculty, Paramedic educational program sponsors, administration, hospital/clinic representatives, employers, police and/or fire services with a role.

Read highlights from the most recent Board of Directors Meeting here.

You will find the Board Meeting Highlights from previous meetings here.

As news about COVID-19 dominates media and public safety discussions at state and federal levels, we want you to know that since we are still two months away, we have no plans right now to cancel ACCREDITCON, occurring May 27-31, 2020, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Your safety is our top priority, however, and we recognize this as an extremely critical and evolving situation. We will continue to monitor developments and base any decisions we make concerning ACCREDITCON on the advice of health and safety experts. In addition, we are waiving all cancellation fees for our guest registrants if cancelled by May 15, and in the case the event is canceled, all attendee registrations will be refunded completely.

We are all in this together and recognize that the health of our nation depends on how all of us respond. We will continue to provide updates.

Responding to the nationwide need for Emergency Medical Services personnel and the social-distancing public health guidance, the Executive Committee of the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT) gave emergency approval to add a Provisional Certification. The Provisional Certification will be automatically assigned to any candidate that (1) completes an educational program at the EMR, EMT, AEMT or Paramedic level and (2) successfully passes the NREMT's cognitive examination. The requirement for completing the psychomotor examination is suspended for the duration of the national emergency or until psychomotor examinations can be safely reinstated in the United States.

“This is a vital step in ensuring that we are able to continue to get qualified and competent EMS personnel into our communities during this national emergency,” said Bill Seifarth, executive director of the NREMT. “This decision, along with this pandemic, is evolving and requires swift, bold measures to ensure the continued safety and health of the public.”

See the complete statement here.

James Cousino, MBA, EMT-P, I/C, Program Director at North Central Michigan College, Petoskey, Michigan, earned the Master of Business Administration degree from Western Governors University, conferred on February 28, 2020.

For a current list of LoR and accredited programs, visit www.caahep.org.

ACCREDITCON

May 27-31, 2020

Louisville, KY