State Partnership Grants

EMSC Stakeholders State Partnerships

Expand and improve emergency medical services for children who need treatment for trauma or critical care.

EMSC’s Authorizing Statute (Public Health Act, Title XIX, § 1910, 42 U.S.C. 300w-9) aims to support demonstration projects for the expansion and improvement of emergency medical services for children who need treatment for trauma or critical care.

The State Partnership grants are currently funded at $130,000 per year.

The majority of State Partnership programs are based in state EMS offices; however, a small number of programs are housed within an accredited school of medicine or other state governmental office.

Click here for additional information (to include contact information) on each State Partnership grant program.

SP Program Location

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State Partnership grants were first introduced in 1997 to help states improve, refine, and integrate pediatric care within the state EMS system.

Since this time, the State Partnership (SP) grant program has worked to institutionalize pediatric-centered healthcare programs within states and territories, and promotes the value and importance of integration.

The SP Program aims to establish a universal presence across all 59 U.S. states and jurisdictions to ensure that children receive optimal emergency care no matter where they live or travel. Each state and jurisdiction works to improve the same prehospital and hospital performance measures, representing the largest national effort to standardize pediatric emergency care.

The SP program provides funding for demonstration projects in each state and jurisdiction in the U.S. for the expansion and improvement of state EMS systems that respond to and care for children in emergencies involving trauma or critical care. Recipients demonstrate new models of EMS system and patient outcome improvements for children by testing innovative methods to promote electronic health information systems; coordination of pediatric emergency care; increased education for the emergency workforce; integration of pediatric components in emergency systems; and national quality improvement (QI) initiatives.

Each grant recipient works to achieve the EMSC SP Program objectives, which are designed to monitor and measure impact at the state/jurisdiction level and are in alignment with established targets for the Program’s performance measures.

Since 2004, the EMSC SP Program's Performance Measures have guided national efforts to make progress towards various outcomes.

In 2006, HRSA MCHB instituted a set of performance measures (PM) for the EMSC SP Program in response to the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993 (Public Law 103-62), which mandated federal programs to be accountable for achieving HRSA-18-063 5 outcomes:

  1. Nationally recommended pediatric equipment is readily available in ambulances;
  2. Prehospital providers receive pediatric-focused training regularly and frequently to ensure that they are prepared to manage pediatric medical and traumatic emergencies;
  3. Prehospital providers have access to pediatric medical direction whenever needed to ensure the right care at the right time;
  4. Hospitals are equipped to manage pediatric medical and traumatic emergencies;
  5. Health care facilities have well-defined guidelines and clearly understood processes that ensure the immediate transfer of children to the most appropriate facility when medically necessary; and
  6. EMSC is integrated and institutionalized within state EMS systems.

Previous successes have informed key focus areas of this next stage of the EMSC SP Program; Expand this section to see future focus areas.

  • Align program investments to amplify and demonstrate impact;
  • Develop the workforce across the continuum of emergency care to ensure capability in demonstrating impact;
  • Mobilize the partnership community to achieve impact; and
  • Promote the value and impact of the HRSA EMSC Program by communicating outcomes.

Project Director

This individual is designated to oversee the grant. They may not be involved in the day-to-day operations of the program but instead provides executive oversight, ensuring the program is operating effectively and in accordance with grant requirements.

Program Manager

The primary role of the Program Manager is to coordinate and manage all aspects of the EMSC grant from illness and injury prevention to bystander care, dispatch, prehospital EMS, definitive hospital care, rehabilitation, and return to community. Although it is preferred that this is a full-time dedicated position, it can also be a shared or part-time position.

Family Advisory Network (FAN) Representative

The FAN position was established in 1999 to assure that patient-centered and culturally sensitive considerations in the delivery of care remain central in planning, development, and implementation of EMSC projects. EMSC family representatives play a unique role in program success. These representatives sit on state EMS advisory committees and serve on the EMSC Family Advisory Network (FAN). The EMSC FAN representatives foster partnerships within their communities, and the consumers’ perspective to improve the delivery of patient care and promote the integration of family- and patient-centered practices within health care systems.