Burnout is EMS’s Top Concern in 2025 – Here’s How We Can Tackle It Together

Burnout is EMS’s Top Concern in 2025 – Here’s How We Can Tackle It Together

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Burnout is EMS’s Top Concern in 2025 – Here’s How We Can Tackle It Together

The 2025 What Paramedics Want survey has made it official: burnout is now the number one issue facing EMS.

76% of EMS professionals identified burnout as a critical issue, and 25% ranked it the single most pressing concern at their agency. Long shifts, staffing shortages, complex patient needs, and a lack of leadership support are driving many paramedics to question whether their careers are sustainable.

One provider summed it up: “Pay me enough to not need four jobs.” Another said: “Stop running us 22 out of 24 hours — it’s dangerous.”

patient reporting software for paramedics sansio

What Burnout Means in EMS

According to the World Health Organization, burnout is a medical syndrome caused by chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. In EMS, this often shows up as:

  • Exhaustion and depletion of energy
  • Cynicism or detachment from the work
  • Reduced professional efficacy

For new providers, this can mean disillusionment early in their careers. For seasoned veterans, it often leads to cynicism and questioning whether the job is sustainable for the long term.

Why This Hits Home for Us at Sansio

At Sansio, we feel this issue deeply — because many of us have been there. Our team includes former paramedics who understand the exhaustion of finishing a 14-hour shift, only to spend another hour buried in paperwork.

Sansio’s product manager and former EMT, Christopher Ward, explained further.
"After running 16 calls in a 14-hour shift, the last thing any medic wants is to spend another 1–2 hours finishing reports. It’s exhausting, mentally draining, and often leads to overdue documentation or rushed narratives that don’t reflect the quality of care delivered. Adding fuel to the fire of burnout in EMS.”

That’s exactly why we’re so committed to designing technology that reduces stress, not adds to it.

Where Technology Helps

While better staffing, wages, and leadership culture are essential to solving burnout, tools like HealthEMS and MobileTouch play a critical supporting role:

  • They make documentation faster and easier, reducing the pile of reports after a long shift.
  • They integrate with partners like LIFENET, Handtevy, and Kno2 to eliminate double entry and keep crews moving.
  • They’re designed with mobile-first workflows, so documenting in the field doesn’t become another burden.

The bottom line: the easier it is to document, the easier the job becomes.

The Path Forward

The EMS1 survey ends on a hopeful note: “Burnout is real — but so is resilience.” We couldn’t agree more.

Burnout doesn’t have to be permanent. Together, with better leadership, stronger staffing strategies, and technology that works for providers instead of against them, EMS can build a healthier, more sustainable future.

At Sansio, we’re proud to be part of that solution — supporting the people who serve others every day.

 

See Source: https://www.ems1.com/ems-trend-report/digital-edition-what-paramedics-want-in-2025

 About Sansio, Inc. – HealthEMS and MobileTouch

Sansio is a recognized leader in healthcare software solutions, providing intuitive and reliable platforms such as HealthEMS to streamline healthcare operations. Sansio is dedicated to enhancing the efficiency and quality of healthcare services through cutting-edge technology and comprehensive support.

For more information visit www.sansio.com.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Lindsay Miller, Marketing Specialist
Sansio, Inc.
lindsay.miller@sansio.com

Maximizing EMS Revenue Through Proper ALS Assessment with HealthEMS

Maximizing EMS Revenue Through Proper ALS Assessment with HealthEMS

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Maximizing EMS Revenue Through Proper ALS Assessment with HealthEMS

In today’s healthcare landscape, EMS agencies are under increasing pressure to optimize revenue while ensuring compliance with complex billing regulations. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is by accurately documenting and billing Advanced Life Support (ALS) assessments. Sansio's HealthEMS electronic Patient Care Reporting (ePCR) platform offers robust tools to streamline this process, ensuring that EMS providers can capture necessary information efficiently and accurately.

HealthEMS ePCR Software Paramedic

Understanding ALS Assessments and How HealthEMS Can Help

An ALS assessment is defined as an evaluation performed by an ALS crew during an emergency response, necessitated by the patient's reported condition at the time of dispatch. Importantly, this assessment does not require the administration of ALS-level interventions to qualify for billing purposes. 

The Sansio Team understands that proper documentation of ALS assessments is crucial, as it directly impacts the agency's ability to bill at the ALS1 level. Failure to document these assessments accurately can result in lost revenue and potential compliance issues. (JEMS.) We built our ALS assessment tool to determine recommended service levels based on the scenario and uses data points from your report to fine tune those recommendations. With this tool, your team can ensure proper billing procedures are completed.

The Importance of Accurate ALS Assessment Documentation

Billing for ALS assessments requires adherence to specific criteria:

Accurate documentation ensures that these criteria are met and substantiated, thereby supporting appropriate billing and reimbursement.

 

 

Leveraging HealthEMS for Efficient ALS Assessment Documentation

Sansio's HealthEMS ePCR platform is designed to facilitate accurate and efficient documentation of ALS assessments. Key features include:

  • Customizable Required Fields: Agencies can configure HealthEMS to require documentation of ALS assessments for applicable calls, ensuring that no critical information is omitted.
  • Billing Review Feature: The platform's billing review functionality allows for the identification and correction of documentation issues before claims are submitted, reducing the risk of denials and ensuring compliance.
  • Knowledge Base Resources: HealthEMS provides access to a comprehensive Knowledge Base, offering guidance on recommended service levels and calculations to help agencies determine appropriate billing levels based on their specific needs.

Maximizing Revenue Through Proper Billing Practices

By ensuring that ALS assessments are accurately documented and appropriately billed, EMS agencies can maximize their revenue streams. HealthEMS supports this goal by providing the tools necessary to capture essential information, validate documentation, and align billing practices with regulatory requirements.

Take Action Today

Proper execution of ALS assessment documentation is not only a compliance necessity but also a significant opportunity for revenue optimization. With Sansio’s ALS Assessment functionality, you can determine how to bill for ALS quickly and easily thanks to auto calculations done on the backend of HealthEMS. Focus more on patient care and stay reassured that you are documenting and billing correctly.

To learn more about how HealthEMS can assist your agency in implementing effective ALS assessment documentation and billing practices, contact the Sansio team today.

Contact Sansio

 About Sansio, Inc. – HealthEMS and MobileTouch

Sansio is a recognized leader in healthcare software solutions, providing intuitive and reliable platforms such as HealthEMS to streamline healthcare operations. Sansio is dedicated to enhancing the efficiency and quality of healthcare services through cutting-edge technology and comprehensive support.

For more information visit www.sansio.com.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Lindsay Miller, Marketing Specialist
Sansio, Inc.
lindsay.miller@sansio.com

Reducing Risk: How Cross-Checking Prevents Paramedic Medication Errors

Reducing Risk: How Cross-Checking Prevents Paramedic Medication Errors

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Reducing Risk: How Cross-Checking Prevents Paramedic Medication Errors

Medication errors in emergency medical services (EMS) can happen in high-stress, high-stakes situations—and even experienced paramedics are not immune. Simple yet effective verification processes during patient reporting can make a life-saving difference, yet studies on self-reported incidents highlight the need for better safeguards (Vilke 2007). One of the most effective yet underutilized tools is cross-checking: a brief but critical pause to verify medications, dosages, and documentation. Sansio explores how a culture of double-checking can dramatically reduce errors and improve patient outcomes.

EMT Using an iPad

Think Twice, Save a Life

Paramedics responding to an anonymous survey reported to have encountered medication errors from protocol errors to wrong medication errors. However, a whopping 63% were dose-related errors. Dosing is a crucial step in providing patient care and can make all the difference in a case, down to the microgram.

The top contributing factor to those dose-related errors?

“Failure to triple check,” (Vilke 2007).

Who is Affected by Medication Errors?

Who is affected by medication errors? Most importantly, the patient – it is our job to make sure that emergency responders have the tools to always put the patient first, and that includes checking all work.

“I have been involved from the administrative side of a wrong medication delivery, and it was not a good situation on many levels,” shared Director of Sales and Marketing and Retired Fire Lieutenant and Paramedic, Don Bertucci.

“Your first concern, of course, is about the patient and any adverse effects that the medication could have on that person.  Once you get past that, you must deal with the how's and the why's, followed by disciplinary action, re-training, and various other tasks that need to be completed to ensure that it doesn't happen again.”

All the patient risk and additional time needed to correct such a serious issue could be avoided with a more simple, hard-to-miss cross-checking strategy.

So, we created one.

Cross Checking Made Easy

“When our customer asked for the electronic collection of data for the Medication Administration Cross Check, I was all for it and brought it to our team for quick development,” continued Bertucci. “It has been a great resource to not only drive EMS personnel behavior, but also to document that it was done. Both are essential to providing high quality patient care.”

By adding a Medication Administration Cross Check (MACC) option in our ePCR software, HealthEMS and MobileTouch, users can be required to fill out a section within the patient report that confirms medication cross checking has been completed. Teams can also use the section of the report for quality improvement by including details about the near miss or potential error. The MACC requirement can be added to any medication and is set up by the agency based on their needs.

MACC in Action

When administering a narcotic like Fentanyl, dosage, unit and route are imperative pieces of information to get correct the first time around. Once the medication is chosen in the report, a MACC table will materialize and show required steps to complete before finishing that patient report. The table will ask:


✅ “Was MACC Completed?”

✅ “Did the MACC catch a potential error?”

✅ “Describe the near miss”

Serving Those Who Serve Others

The Sansio team is eager to continue developing innovative features for our ePCR software every day. By identifying the bigger issues faced by emergency response teams, we can help build better solutions to ensure better patient care and easier documentation.

Interested in learning more about Sansio and other HealthEMS features? Connect with Sansio at www.sansio.com/contact-us.

iPad Preview of Handtevy and MobileTouch

 About Sansio, Inc. – HealthEMS and MobileTouch

Sansio is a recognized leader in healthcare software solutions, providing intuitive and reliable platforms such as HealthEMS to streamline healthcare operations. Sansio is dedicated to enhancing the efficiency and quality of healthcare services through cutting-edge technology and comprehensive support.

For more information visit www.sansio.com.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Lindsay Miller, Marketing Specialist
Sansio, Inc.
lindsay.miller@sansio.com