Our awardee is being recognized for her contributions to quality improvement and patient safety not only within the St. Charles County Ambulance District, but also at the local, state, national, and even, international levels.

Her contributions within SCCAD include continuous quality improvement efforts in building and maintaining a robust framework for monitoring and improvement, including as many as thirteen categories.

Her leadership and service to pediatric patients includes participation in the EMS for Children program (EMS-C), where she helps ensure our readiness at the highest level by acquiring and maintaining our pediatric equipment, facilitates high-performance pediatric training, and participates in community safety programs.  She also gives her heart and soul to the participation in the STARS (Special Needs Tracking and Response System) program, where she works tirelessly to track, follow, update, and educate our providers on the ultra-high needs of kids in this program.

Her contributions to quality in EMS are also worthy of recognition at regional, state, national and international levels.  She is an integral part of the Missouri state data taskforce as her participation at the state level helps to improve data submissions and analysis.  She helped found and serves as a mentor to the St. Louis regional EMS data improvement group, and she helps the group to improve data access, analysis and continuous quality improvement.  She was a founding mentor for the National Red Lights and Sirens project with Dr. Bryan Wilson, MD FAEMS.

She is a senior faculty for the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP), teaches and mentors leaders across the country and the world in improvement science, and assists them in establishing CQI programs at their home agencies.  Finally, she is the course co-creator and capstone director for the NAEMSP/NAEMSE EMS Educator collaborative, where she mentors national leaders and educators in improving quality EMS education.

Our 2023 Improvement Award goes to Captain Stephanie Ashford with SCCAD.