American Ambulance Association is proud to partner with the American Red Cross and be a part of all they do for our community, our country and around the world. Our blood drive at the 2025 Annual Conference & Trade Show is important to patients in need, including those we serve with ambulance mobile healthcare.
The Red Cross needs to collect more than 13,000 blood donations and more than 2,500 platelet donations each day.
The blood collected by the Red Cross helps millions of patients in more than 2,500 hospitals and other facilities across the country.
84% of blood donations are given at blood drives hosted by generous sponsoring organizations like ours.
During this lighthearted, interactive presentation, attendees will come to understand that they are not alone in the management or organizational moments we all have experienced but may not be proud of. Utilizing an anonymous mobile polling platform, we will offer three scenarios and ask the attendees to identify which statement or scenario is true. The scenarios will range from the unbelievable to ridiculous and will highlight common management mistakes or situations which have been encountered by leaders in EMS and public safety organizations around the country. This session will be structured to entertain and educate and will demonstrate how leaders often knowingly or unknowingly deviate from leadership best practices, exposing themselves and their organizations to substantial embarrassment and legal liability. Brian, Scott, & Chris will provide legal lessons, including practical advice for how to step following a misstep.
We are swimming in a sea of data from dispatch, electronic medical records, scheduling systems, payroll, and more. Unskilled leaders use data as a weapon to judge, apply pressure, and manipulate. They share it in ways that blame, cause fear, and cause damage to the systems they lead.
Effective leaders use data to empower their teams to make measurable improvements. They display data in ways that people extract accurate meaning at a glance. They know what measures are meaningful and how to assess trends and patterns in valid ways.
In this interactive session, you’ll learn the skills, tips, and tricks for becoming a truly effective data-driven leader.
A Deep Dive into CAAS Standards Version 4.0 for EMS Leaders & Accreditation Professionals
Join us for a comprehensive, full-day seminar designed to equip EMS agencies and professionals with a comprehensive understanding of the new CAAS Version 4.0 Accreditation Standards.
This interactive session will provide valuable insights, practical strategies, and hands-on guidance to help organizations navigate the latest accreditation requirements with confidence.
EMS medicine is evolving beyond lights, sirens, and rapid transport. As prehospital healthcare expands in scope and complexity, EMS clinicians are embracing cutting-edge innovations, advanced protocols, and new models of patient care. This session, led by Douglas Kupas, President of the National Association of EMS Physicians, and Gerad Troutman, Medical Director for the American Ambulance Association, will explore the latest trends shaping the future of EMS medicine from mobile integrated healthcare and AI-driven decision support to novel pharmacologic interventions and emerging prehospital care trends. Attendees will gain insight into how science, technology, and policy are redefining EMS, empowering providers to deliver high-quality, patient-centered care in an ever-changing landscape. Join us as we navigate the next era of EMS medicine!
It is obvious that EMS is at a crossroads, and many argue that our challenges are existential: initial education, recruitment, retention, and finances all seem to be under varying degrees of crisis. While there’s no silver bullet, speaker David Fifer will present research that suggests the most impactful way to address all of these challenges at once involves modernizing the current model of EMS certification, and building a new paradigm built on the healthcare clinical ladder model.
AI and EMS Business Development: A Strategic Advantage
Is your business keeping pace with AI’s strategic edge? This session uncovers how AI tools can uncover hidden growth opportunities, revolutionize customer relations, and fine-tune your strategies for competitive success. With actionable insights and a touch of wit, Pat and Dom will ensure you’re ready to take your EMS business to the next level.
Set sail on a transformative leadership journey in “Don’t Give up the Ship: Navigating the ‘Ships’ of EMS Leadership.” Participants will explore Mentorship, Partnership, Stewardship, Relationship, Workmanship, and Membership to enhance leadership effectiveness. Attendees will learn to foster mentorship programs, leverage data for informed decisions, and implement ethical stewardship practices. This session equips EMS leaders with actionable tools to build resilient teams, optimize operations, and drive sustainable growth through collaborative and data-driven strategies.
How Falck Developed Leadership Training for its Front-line Managers
You have promoted your best EMTs and Paramedics to be managers. You gave them the keys to the supervisor vehicle and set them forward to lead the next generation of clinicians. You followed the blueprint set by every other healthcare specialty; great providers get promoted to managers and are expected to be great.
But how come they aren’t? Great EMTs became great because they receive training and mentorship. The same is true of our EMS managers and leaders. Join Michael and Rob as they detail precisely how they and their team planned, designed, evaluated, and delivered leadership training for their front-line managers and supervisors.
A Compliance Program is not a “set it and forget it” part of your risk management portfolio. Attendees will learn the seven areas the OIG considers when measuring the effectiveness of a compliance program. They will also discuss the DOJ Criminal Division’s 2023 “Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs” which guides prosecutors in determining the resolution of offenses, based on the effectiveness of the provider’s compliance program. Finally, it will compare these tools with the original OIG Compliance Guidance from 2003.
Undercover Assassin: Shattering the Glass Ceiling of Perfection.
Perfectionism can hold us back as leaders. We use the illusion of perfection to hide the weaknesses in our leadership. In order to level up, we must be willing to shed perfectionism and lean into discomfort, learning where we can continually grow. Join Michelle Anderson, American Ambulance Association Region IV Director, for an interactive session where she dismantles her perfectionistic tendencies and how she shattered the glass ceiling in her leadership.
Emerging Tech in EMS: Advancing Emergency Response with Innovation
Technology is changing the face of EMS from AI-based decision making to drone-assisted emergency response. This session demystifies the latest technologies that are enhancing crew safety, Clinical training, patient access and care, increasing the efficiency of operations and challenging the concepts of what can be accomplished in emergency medical services. Attendees will learn actionable insights from real world applications from GMR’s including How to Integrate AI for Smarter Dispatch and Triage. How A.I. is improving safety within the EMS industry (Air and ground) and How A.I. can improve clinical training and ultimately patient care.
This session explores the transformative potential of forging partnerships between EMS and unconventional allies such as rural health organizations. We will delve into a case study from Kentucky, where the collaboration between the Kentucky Office of Rural Health, the Kentucky Ambulance Providers Association, and the Kentucky Board of EMS has yielded significant benefits. Attendees will learn about the successful programs initiated through this partnership and gain insights on how to cultivate similar collaborations within their own services or states to enhance EMS outcomes. This presentation will provide a framework for EMS leaders to identify potential partners and strategies to implement collaborative efforts effectively.
The Smart Money: Using Artificial Intelligence to Transform EMS Collections
This innovative session reveals how artificial intelligence is reshaping EMS revenue cycle management from reactive to predictive. Attendees will discover how their billing data contains hidden intelligence that can forecast payment timelines, identify at-risk claims, and optimize collection strategies. Through visual demonstrations and real-world examples, participants will see how AI analyzes thousands of policy numbers in seconds to predict which claims need attention, when payments will arrive, and how to improve collection rates. This practical session transforms complex technology into actionable insights for immediate revenue cycle improvement. Key Takeaways:
Predicting which claims are likely to be underpaid or delayed before they become problems
Understanding how policy number patterns reveal crucial insights about payment behavior
Implementing AI-driven prioritization strategies to accelerate cash flow and improve collection rates
This session demonstrates how artificial intelligence isn’t just cutting-edge technology—it’s a practical tool that EMS agencies can use today to work smarter, not harder, in their revenue cycle operations.
From medical malpractice and auto liability to cyber security and labor disputes, to the increase in “nuclear verdicts,” the cost of providing care has become more than salaries and equipment. Managing enterprise risk is more important than ever for sustainability in a world where reimbursement is not keeping up with unfunded mandates and a litigious environment. In this session, Allyson Pharr, American Ambulance Association Secretary, and Kim Godden, American Ambulance Association Federal PAC Committee Chair, will go over some steps you can take to mitigate some of these risks before they occur and some experienced tips on how to manage when the hackers hack.
Stools Can’t Stand on Two Legs: Building a Balanced EMS Organization
Donna Hankins, American Ambulance Association Payer Relations Committee Chair, and Amy Gnojek, Founder/Principal Consultant of Apex360, will explore the essential synergy between Operations, Finance/Admin, and Reimbursement, with Compliance as the stabilizing force. Attendees will discover how aligning these critical components strengthens their EMS system’s stability, efficiency, and financial health. Participants will leave equipped with actionable strategies, including fostering interdisciplinary communication to eliminate silos, integrating compliance into daily workflows to reduce risk, and leveraging data-driven collaboration to enhance revenue cycles. This session offers practical insights that EMS leaders can implement immediately to drive performance and build a more resilient organization.
We keep hearing data drives decisions but are we collecting the right data and analyzing correctly to make those right decisions. Unit Hour Utilization is still a widely used term throughout the EMS industry. This session will explain what data should be collected and analyzed to determine the UHU of your system and individual units. We will explain how to redefine UHU to time-on-task exploring direct and non-direct tasks while creating a safe, efficient, and effective system that will help prevent provider burnout.
In this session, we will delve into the transformative potential of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) as a strategic tool for emergency medical services. As EMS organizations face evolving challenges and demands, the need for clear, measurable goals is paramount. This presentation will explore how OKRs can serve as a catalyst for aligning teams, enhancing accountability, and driving measurable progress within EMS settings.
Attendees will learn about the common pitfalls that can undermine strategic efforts, including poor problem understanding, misaligned organizational capabilities, and cultural barriers. Through a combination of theoretical insights and real-world EMS examples, the session will illustrate how implementing OKRs can overcome these obstacles by fostering clarity, focus, and collaboration across various levels of an organization.
Interactive exercises will provide participants with hands-on experience in crafting effective OKRs. We will discuss how to differentiate between Objectives (the “what” we aim to achieve) and Key Results (the “how” we measure success), and how to effectively link these to key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure strategic alignment and success.
This session is designed for EMS leaders and managers seeking to revitalize their organizational strategies and achieve significant, measurable improvements in performance and service delivery.
Join us for a dynamic panel discussion featuring leading healthcare experts, Asbel Montes, Zach Gaumer, and Andrew Mulcahy as they examine the current and future state of EMS data and its transformative potential in healthcare decision-making. Moderated by Katie Arens, Chair, and Angie McLain-Johnson, Co-Chair of the AAA Data Task Force, this event will provide participants with insights into the committee’s past and future initiatives, including the Ground Ambulance Patient Billing Advisory Committee and Ground Ambulance Cost Data Collection. Panelists will partake in an insightful conversation exploring the essential role that data plays in shaping critical EMS reimbursement policies and development now and in the future.
Response Reboot? Implementing Data Driven Decisions for System Sustainability – A Case Study
Representatives from several national EMS associations and organizations collaborated on the publication of a white paper: Rethinking Emergency Medical Services: Applying Evidence and Data to Redesign Response Models for a Resilient and Sustainable Future. One agency, the Kanawha Emergency Ambulance Authority (KCEAA), recently began a process to implement several changes to their delivery model based on data derived from a system assessment, including, fee schedule revisions, staffing and deployment model enhancements, response time goal changes, co-location of their call center with the county’s Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) and revenue cycle management changes. This session will highlight what the recommendations were, what data was used to develop the recommendations, and the process KCEAA is using to turn recommendations into reality.
