The American journal of emergency medicine
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Each year, about 1,250,000 people in the United States experience an acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Emergency medical services (EMS) systems play a key part in the prehospital care and transportation of AMI patients. ⋯ In order to improve the prehospital care provided to AMI patients, this article by the Access to Care Subcommittee of the National Heart Attack Alert Program Coordinating Committee makes a number of recommendations regarding the staffing and equipping of EMS systems. The recommendations cover the "chain of survival" concept, universal and enhanced 9-1-1, emergency medical dispatching, ground ambulance specifications, automated external defibrillators, advanced life support coverage, medical direction, 12-lead electrocardiograms, and prehospital thrombolysis.