Transparency for every family. Accountability for every agency. A voice for every provider.
Every year, more than 240 million 911 calls are made across the United States. In the vast majority of those calls, the people who respond are strangers - assigned by dispatch, not chosen by the patient. Unlike a doctor, a hospital, or even a dentist, you have no say in who shows up.
And unlike every other part of the healthcare system, there is no public record. No ratings. No reviews. No accountability infrastructure of any kind. A paramedic with a history of complaints, an agency with chronically faulty equipment, a service with a pattern of delayed response - none of it is visible to the public they serve.
That information gap is not an accident. It is the result of decades of industry inertia, regulatory limitations, and the assumption that EMS operates outside the scope of public scrutiny. EMSGrades was founded on the belief that assumption is wrong.
"Transparency is not a threat to good EMS. It is the reward for it."
We believe patients have a right to information. The family calling 911 for a loved one in cardiac arrest deserves to know whether the agency responding has a strong clinical track record. The patient transferred by air medical deserves to know the crew's certification level and the program's safety record. That information exists. It should be public.
We believe EMS providers deserve a voice. The paramedic working 24-hour shifts for an agency that defers equipment maintenance and ignores safety concerns has no public platform to warn others. The EMT leaving a toxic work environment has nowhere to document what they experienced in a way that protects future colleagues. EMSGrades gives the workforce the voice it deserves.
We believe accountability improves quality. When agencies know their performance is visible and rated - by patients, by families, by their own providers - the incentive structure changes. The agencies doing exceptional work get recognized. Those cutting corners face consequences. That dynamic is how quality improves in every other part of healthcare. There is no reason EMS should be exempt.
We believe transparency and respect for the profession are compatible. EMSGrades is not an attack on EMS. The vast majority of EMS providers are skilled, dedicated professionals doing an extraordinarily difficult job. Transparency serves them - it distinguishes the agencies that invest in their people and their communities from those that don't.
Our mission is pursued through four commitments that guide every decision we make.
Georgia is home to 516 licensed EMS agencies and more than 20,000 licensed providers across 159 counties. It has a mature, well-structured state EMS regulatory system through the Georgia Office of EMS and Trauma, with publicly accessible licensure data that makes EMSGrades possible.
Georgia is also a state where EMS service quality varies dramatically - from highly resourced metro Atlanta systems to rural counties with limited staffing and aging equipment. That variation is exactly why transparency matters, and why Georgia is the right place to start.