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Rural vs urban EMS: 2024 NEMSIS update

National Characteristics of Emergency Medical Services in Rural and Frontier Areas: A 2024 Update on Rural-Urban Differences in EMS Care
Prehospital Emergency Care · Added 31 July 2026

Survey examining EMS characteristics and care differences between rural and urban areas — reports on resource availability, response times, and clinical capabilities.

Study type

Cross-sectional

Design

Cross-sectional analysis of a national EMS registry (NEMSIS 2024)

Participants

45,383,694 EMS responses across 50 US states and DC; 6.9% rural

Main finding

Rural responses showed older patients, greater air-medical use and higher on-scene mortality; the rural trauma on-scene death excess was largely explained by patient physiology at first EMS contact; the 2012 rural stroke-mortality gap was absent in 2024

Caveat

US registry data; limited to recorded NEMSIS variables

Bottom line

Context only

Learning goal

Understand how rural context shapes prehospital patient physiology, resource use and outcomes in Australian settings.

More

• Topic: Operations & systems
• Daily scan: 31 July 2026

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