EMSGrades exists to bring transparency and accountability to emergency medical services in Georgia. Reviews submitted by patients, families, EMS providers, and employers are central to that mission. These Community Guidelines define what is and is not acceptable on our platform - not to discourage honest feedback, but to ensure that the reviews published here are fair, credible, and genuinely useful to the public.
We take a strong stance in favor of free expression. We believe that honest, experience-based criticism - even harsh criticism - serves the public interest. We will not remove a review simply because an agency or provider finds it unflattering. We will remove content that is fabricated, abusive, or illegal.
2. Who Can Submit a Review
EMSGrades accepts reviews from the following categories of reviewers:
Patients and patients' family members: Anyone who has received EMS care or whose family member has received care from a reviewed agency or provider.
Bystanders and witnesses: Anyone who directly observed EMS care being rendered.
Current and former EMS employees: Providers who have worked for a reviewed agency, reviewing that agency as an employer.
EMS employers: Agency owners, directors, or supervisors reviewing individual providers they have supervised or employed.
Peer providers: EMS providers reviewing colleagues they have worked alongside directly.
You must have direct, firsthand experience with the subject of your review. Reviews based on rumors, secondhand accounts, or general reputation without personal experience are not permitted.
3. What Makes a Good Review
The most useful reviews are specific, honest, and experience-based. When writing a review, consider:
Be specific: Describe what you observed, experienced, or witnessed. General statements like "great service" or "terrible agency" are less useful than specific observations.
Stick to what you know: Write about the aspects of care or employment you directly experienced. Don't speculate about things you didn't witness.
Be fair: If you had a mostly positive experience with one negative aspect, say so. Reviews that acknowledge both strengths and weaknesses are more credible and more useful.
Focus on the professional, not the personal: Reviews should address professional conduct, clinical quality, workplace conditions, and patient care - not personal characteristics unrelated to EMS performance.
Use your own words: Write in your own voice. Reviews that appear to be copied, templated, or generated by AI may be removed.
4. Prohibited Content
The following content is not permitted on EMSGrades and will be removed:
Fabricated reviews: Reviews that describe events that did not occur or people you did not interact with.
Incentivized reviews: Reviews submitted in exchange for compensation, discounts, upgrades, or other benefits of any kind.
Competitor-directed reviews: Reviews submitted by or at the direction of a competing agency or provider with the intent to harm a competitor's rating.
Personal attacks: Content that attacks a person's race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or other protected characteristic.
Doxxing and personal information: Content that includes private personal information - home addresses, personal phone numbers, financial information, or other identifying information not relevant to professional conduct.
Threats and harassment: Content that threatens, intimidates, or harasses any individual.
Obscene or sexually explicit content.
Defamatory statements: False statements of fact stated as true that damage the reputation of an individual or entity. Opinion is protected; false facts are not.
HIPAA-protected information: Patient names, dates of birth, medical record numbers, diagnosis information, or any other information that could identify a specific patient.
Content promoting illegal activity.
5. Identity and Employment Verification
Verification on EMSGrades is optional. You are not required to verify your identity or employment relationship to submit a review. Anonymous and pseudonymous reviews are permitted.
However, reviewers who choose to verify their identity or employment relationship will receive a "Verified" badge on their review, which may lend additional credibility to their account. Verification means only that we have confirmed a claimed relationship through a reasonable process - it does not mean we have independently verified the content of the review itself.
Misrepresenting your verification status or submitting false verification documentation is a serious violation of these Guidelines and will result in permanent removal from the Platform.
6. Conflicts of Interest
Transparency about conflicts of interest strengthens the credibility of our platform. The following rules apply:
You may not review your own agency or yourself.
You may not review an agency in which you have a financial ownership interest.
Owners, officers, and employees of an agency may not submit positive reviews of their own agency from personal accounts.
Reviews submitted by immediate family members of an agency owner or senior leadership must disclose that relationship.
Competing agency owners or employees may submit reviews only if they have genuine direct experience as a patient, family member, or former employee - and must disclose the competitive relationship.
We use automated and manual signals to detect conflict-of-interest violations. Accounts found to be operating in violation of these rules will be permanently suspended.
7. How We Moderate Content
EMSGrades uses a combination of automated screening and human review to moderate content. Our moderation process works as follows:
Automated screening: All submitted reviews are screened automatically for prohibited content patterns before publication.
Publication: Reviews that pass automated screening are published, typically within 24 hours of submission.
Ongoing monitoring: Published reviews remain subject to moderation if flagged by users, agencies, or our team.
Flagging: Any user may flag a review as potentially violating these Guidelines. Flagged reviews are reviewed by a member of the EMSGrades team.
Removal decisions: We will remove a review only if it clearly violates these Guidelines. We will not remove reviews solely because the subject of the review disputes the reviewer's characterization of events.
We aim to make moderation decisions within 5 business days of a flag or dispute being submitted.
8. Appeals and Disputes
If your review has been removed and you believe the removal was in error, you may appeal by contacting legal@emsgrades.com with:
The text of the review that was removed;
A brief explanation of why you believe the removal was incorrect;
Any supporting information you believe is relevant.
We will review your appeal and respond within 10 business days. Our decision on appeal is final.
If you are an agency or provider disputing a review about you, please see our Review Dispute Policy.
9. Agency and Provider Responses
Agencies and providers with claimed profiles (Silver tier and above) may post a public response to any review submitted about them. Responses are subject to the same content standards as reviews - they must be professional, factual, and not contain prohibited content.
Responses should address the substance of the review. Responses that attack the reviewer personally, threaten legal action, or attempt to identify an anonymous reviewer will be removed and may result in suspension of the agency's account.
The best response to a negative review is a professional, specific, and constructive reply that demonstrates accountability and a commitment to improvement.
10. Enforcement
Violations of these Community Guidelines may result in:
Removal of the offending content;
A warning to the account holder;
Temporary suspension of the account;
Permanent termination of the account and all associated content;
Referral to law enforcement where appropriate.
EMSGrades reserves the right to make all moderation decisions at its sole discretion and to update these Guidelines at any time. Significant changes will be announced on the Platform.