Welcome to Southern Tier Emergency Medical System (STEMS), a program of Southern Tier Health Care System, Inc. We are one of the eighteen regional EMS councils serving the EMS community and are the EMS program agency for the Southwestern Regional EMS Council (SWREMS). Serving Allegany, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties, we strive to “promote excellence in Southern Tier Emergency Medical Services through education, communication and quality improvement.”
As the program agency of SWREMS, it is our responsibility to research and coordinate educational seminars to meet the needs of the EMS agencies in Allegany, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties. We are contracted by the New York State Department of Health Bureau of EMS and are required to provide a specific set of “deliverables,” which act as goals for us to meet. STEMS also supports the Western Regional Medical Advisory Committee (WREMAC).
STEMS serves the 91 New York State Certified EMS agencies that span over 3,400 square miles. This area covers over 260,000 citizens in the three-county region of Southwestern New York.
STEMS strives to create ties and networking between EMS organizations to help promote continuous, quality care. Patient care is a top priority for STEMS and by working to further educate the members of the prehospital team in our region, we will move toward truly superior patient care.
Thanks for visiting STEMS!
STEMS Goals:
EMS Education: We strive to provide area EMS agencies with the tools that will help them be better equipped to care for citizens in their community. One way we do this is by providing numerous trainings and refreshers throughout the year. We have created and implemented a regional plan of EMS education with the Regional EMS Council and local course sponsors. By working together within the region, we efficiently use the resources available to best meet the needs of EMS agencies and communities within the three counties that we serve.
Prehospital Care Report Management: STEMS is responsible for distributing prehospital care reports (PCRs) to the New York State Certified ALS first response and ambulance EMS agencies within the region. We also collect the completed PCRs for evaluation and forward them to the New York State Department of Health for scanning into their Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System. STEMS has recently partnered with emsCharts, allowing us to provide agencies in our tri-county region with electronic PCRs (ePCRs). To learn more about emsCharts and ePCRs, visit the "emsCharts" section of this website by clicking here.
Quality Improvement: Developing, executing and continuing a strong program of quality improvement (QI) will ensure the excellence of documentation and patient care in the region. When weaknesses or problems are found, STEMS makes every effort to educate the EMS community and resolve the issue. Our goal is 100% cooperation and quality throughout the pre-hospital team. The QI program will help us meet that goal.
Regional System Coordination: Coordinating the communication and work of the SWREMS council, the WREMAC and all regional EMS agencies, STEMS improves the overall functionality and efficiency of our regional EMS system.
Networking and Communication: Through our website, Facebook page, and added opportunities for interaction throughout the region, STEMS encourages networking and communication between the EMS providers and all pre-hospital team members.
Meet the Needs of the EMS System: STEMS researches the needs of our region’s EMS system. We accomplish this through communication with the EMS providers, hospitals, medical directors, and EMS supervisory organizations. We determine what improvements can be made to benefit both the team and patient care and move toward meeting those needs.