Emergency Department Annual Report and Trauma Fact Sheet Published

Two new data products have been published on the Bureau of EMS Web site:

• Emergency Department Annual Report—2003–2005: The statewide emergency department utilization report contains data about all ED encounters, including outpatient visits (patient encounters that did not result in a hospital admission) and inpatient admissions (those leading to a hospital admission). The 2003–2005 report compares 744,354 ED encounters in 2005 to ED encounters in 2003 and 2004 at 42 acute care hospitals in Utah.
• Utah Trauma Update: Medical Helicopter Use in Salt Lake County: The fact sheet based on Utah Trauma Registry data evaluates the use of helicopter transport for traumatic injuries within Salt Lake County.

---

Notice of Fuel Fluctuation Rate

The Bureau of EMS is issuing a notice that pursuant to R-426-16 Ambulance Rates, Fuel Fluctuation Rate, when diesel fuel exceeds $3.75 per gallon or gasoline exceeds $4.00 per gallon an additional surcharge of 25 cents per mile of transport may be added to the mileage rate. The Bureau encourages all agencies to document this surcharge in case of an audit.
If gas and diesel fuel drops below the $3.75 and the $4.00 per gallon, agencies should stop billing the 25-cent surcharge.

---

Prehospital Data Collection System

The Bureau's new prehospital data collection system, POLARIS, went live in September 2006. The Bureau has created an extensive Web site section to give prehospital agencies and software vendors the information they need to transition from Utah's 20-year-old AIS data system to POLARIS or any NEMSIS-compliant system. Additional information about NEMSIS and POLARIS...

---

EMS Information System (EMSIS) Access

To access the Bureau's EMS Information System at https://bems.state.ut.us/ (for general information on EMT status and approved courses), log in as "guest" with password "guest" then click "Public Access". Use Internet Explorer (v6 or below) or Netscape (v4.79 or below). In Mozilla Firefox, create a new line in "about:config" with name "general.useragent.override", and add "Mozilla/4.0" to the string value suggested by Firefox.

---

Bureau of EMS Locations and Contact Information

Mailing Address
Bureau of Emergency Medical Services
Utah Department of Health
PO Box 142004
Salt Lake City UT 84114-2004

EMS Office (map)
Cannon Health Building, Fl 2
288 N 1460 W, Salt Lake City UT (do not mail to this address; use our mailing address, above)
Hours: Monday–Friday, 8:00am–5:00pm, except state holidays
Phone: 801-538-6435
Toll-free: 800-284-1131
Fax: 801-538-6808
Fax for certification paperwork: 801-538-6353
Disaster Line (emergencies only): 866-DOH-UTAH (866-364-8824)

EMS Warehouse (map)
130 S Redwood Rd Unit J
North Salt Lake UT 84054
Hours: Monday–Friday, 8:30am–4:30pm, except state holidays
Phone: 801-936-0230