Articles: emergency-medical-services.
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Behavioral health emergencies (BHEs) are a common patient encounter for emergency medical services (EMS) clinicians and other first responders, in particular law enforcement (LE) officers. It is critical for EMS clinicians to have management strategies for BHEs, yet relatively little information exists on best practices. In 2016, the Los Angeles County EMS Agency's Commission initiated a comprehensive evaluation of the 9-1-1 response for BHEs and developed a plan for improving the quality of care and safety for patients and first responders. ⋯ This paper describes a comprehensive performance improvement initiative in LAC-EMSA's 9-1-1 response to BHEs. The initiative included a thorough current state analysis, followed by future state mapping and the implementation of interventions to reduce LE as the primary responder when an EMS response is often warranted, and to improve EMS protocols and access to resources for BHEs.