Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Emergency Medical Services
If you get very sick or badly hurt and need help right away, you should use emergency medical services. These services use specially trained people and specially equipped facilities.
You may need care in the hospital emergency room (ER). Doctors and nurses there treat emergencies, such as heart attacks and injuries. For some emergencies, you need help where you are. Emergency medical technicians, or EMTs, do specific rescue jobs. They answer emergency calls and give basic medical care. Some EMTs are paramedics - they have training to do medical procedures on site. They usually take you to the ER for more care.
If you or someone you know needs emergency care, go to your hospital's emergency room. If you think the problem is life-threatening, call 911.
It sits within Health System.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Emergency Medical Services
459 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- Artificial Intelligence(AI) in the Emergency Department (ED) in CologneUniversity of Cologne
- Plan and Protect: Safety Planning for Teens in Rural Emergency DepartmentsDartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
- Informing Low-acuity Emergency Department Patients of Non-emergent Resources (2)Geisinger Clinic
- Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta in Non-traumatic Out of Hospital Cardiac ArrestSt. Olavs Hospital
- Evaluating the Use of Prehospital Lung Ultrasound in EMS: A Multicenter Pilot StudyRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- Simulation Trial of Telemedical Support for ParamedicsBoston Medical Center
Research already completed
- Unplanned Emergency Department Visits, Hospital Admission, or Death During Hospital-at-Home Care for Acute InfectionsChimei Medical Center
- Effect of Aromatherapy on Anxiety in Relatives of Emergency Patients.Bitlis Eren University
- Mental Health Crisis Training for Police, Firefighters, and Public Health StaffFar Eastern Memorial Hospital
- A Comparative Study Between a Pre-hospital and an In-hospital Circulatory Support Strategy (ECMO) in Refractory Cardiac Arrest (APACAR2)Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris
- Modeling the Impact of Inbound Call Distribution Virtualization in Emergency Medical Communication Centers (EMCCs) on Their Service LevelNantes University Hospital
- Visio-conference for Pre-hospital Triage of Stroke SuspicionsUniversity Hospital, Bordeaux
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Learn More
- Emergency Information Form for Children With Special NeedsAmerican College of Emergency Physicians
- Emergency Room Tips for Caregivers: Your Comprehensive GuideCaregiver Action Network
- Going to the Emergency Room (For Parents)Nemours Foundation
- How to Handle a Medical Emergency (For Kids)Nemours Foundation
- Medical Bill RightsCenters for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- Mental Health Emergency CareChildren's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota
- Recognizing medical emergenciesMedical Encyclopedia
- Teaching Your Child How to Use 911Nemours Foundation
- These Emergency Rooms Adapt to the Needs of Older AdultsAmerican Heart Association
- What You Need to Know in an Emergency (For Parents)Nemours Foundation
- When to use the emergency room - adultMedical Encyclopedia
- When to use the emergency room - childMedical Encyclopedia
- When Your Child Needs Emergency Medical ServicesAmerican Academy of Pediatrics
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Emergency Medical ServicesNational Institutes of Health
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Emergency Medical Services. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Emergency Medical Services, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.