Commitment to Excellence in EMS

Kat Probst, director of business development/quality assurance for Adair County Ambulance District (ACAD), has exhibited a commitment to excellence in EMS, working various positions throughout her career. She began working her way up to become a member of the Executive Team and heads the Patient Billing, Quality Assurance (QA) and IT departments. Kat is a ZOLL Pulse Award winner for 2018. Here’s why:

Integrated Dispatch, ePCR & Billing Lead to Capturing More Revenue

In 2011, Kat led ACAD’s initiative to bring outsourced billing in house by deploying RescueNet Dispatch, ePCR and Billing simultaneously. This accomplishment allowed ACAD to increase revenue by capturing an additional 20 percent in income. In the process, she was also able to collect on accounts that the billing company failed to collect on, bringing in additional volume that would have been lost.

Shortly after bringing ePCR and billing in house, Kat led the initiative for a comprehensive QA program. ACAD’s Clinical Continuous Quality Improvement (CCQI) program promotes, enhances and ensures the quality, effectiveness and sustainability of pre-hospital emergency medical care in Adair County. The CCQI program focuses on clinical excellence in patient care, training and documentation by systems developed within ePCR and reporting. The program allows for significant data reporting and analyses, 100 percent chart review with crew feedback, and oversight of compliance and care standards.

Kat has also taken the time to teach documentation classes, showing the crews how to best use RescueNet ePCR to their advantage, promoting effective, accurate and thorough patient care documentation.

Dedication to Improving Efficiency Agency-Wide

Kat serves on multiple ACAD committees where she is able to use statistical data to help achieve the agency’s overall efficiency objectives:

• Kat’s dedication to the quality program has helped to get the overall average dispatched to en route times down by 55 seconds, on scene times down by two minutes and report completion times down by more than 2 hours.
• She led the committee that brought Pit Crew method to the district, improving efficiency and scene management which improves ACADs overall patient care and increased out of hospital ROSC for sudden cardiac arrest within Adair County to 67 percent.
• She led the committee that brought Cardio Cerebral Resuscitation (CCR) to the district, which helps set the patient up for a more positive outcome.
• Kat serves on the Disaster Committee, which has developed MCI response plans and accrues supplies needed in the event of an MCI. They have developed active assailant protocols to quickly, efficiently and safely treat patients during the event. She has met with and walked through surrounding schools and stores in the community to ensure adequate agency response.
• Kat also serves as vice president of the Missouri Ambulance Association and serves as committee vice chair for Missouri Central Region’s EMS Regional Committee.

In Her Own Words: Leveraging Integrated Software to Achieve High-Quality Patient Care Standards & Efficient Systems

“It has always been my belief that with high-quality patient care standards and efficient systems we could create an excellent organization. With dedication, hard work and an excellent team, we have been able to use integrated software systems to improve delivery of patient care, increase revenue and ensure compliance. In the current face of decreased reimbursement, use of such integrated efficient systems is imperative for survival.”