• Melody Glenn, Remle Crowe, Maia Dorsett, Mike Taigman, Andrew A Herring, Mary Mercer, Anjni Joiner, Arjun Venkatesh, Corey Davis, Kathryn Hawk, H Gene Hern, Gerard Carroll, José G Cabañas, Gail D'Onofrio, and Elizabeth A Samuels.
• Departments of Emergency Medicine and Psychiatry, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
• Prehosp Emerg Care. 2024 Dec 13: 191-9.

ObjectivesIn response to the escalating overdose crisis there is an urgent need for innovative strategies to reduce overdose death. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is uniquely poised to reduce mortality and other harms associated with opioid use through prevention, harm reduction, and treatment, yet there is a paucity of nationally recognized best practices or quality measures to guide prehospital quality improvement (QI) efforts related to opioid use disorder (OUD).MethodsA multidisciplinary team of subject matter experts in addiction medicine, EMS, public health, and QI was convened to develop recommendations for a model QI framework for prehospital OUD prevention, harm reduction, and treatment based on the Model for Improvement framework.ResultsThis article introduces a comprehensive EMS QI framework, aimed at not only addressing acute opioid-related emergencies but also fostering long-term strategies to mitigate mortality and other adverse outcomes among individuals with OUD.ConclusionsGrounded in evidence-based practices and informed by collaborative expertise, this framework represents a pivotal step toward enhancing the effectiveness and responsiveness of EMS in combating the multifaceted challenges posed by OUD.

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