The goal of the Heat-Related EMS Activation Surveillance Dashboard is to track heat-related events in the pre-hospital setting using nationally submitted Emergency Medical Services (EMS) data. The dashboard contains one interactive page with a geo-surveillance view and a second page which displays patient characteristics.

The data set for this dashboard includes all deduplicated EMS patient care reports (PCRs) for a rolling time period that meet the following inclusion criteria for a heat-related event in the pre-hospital setting. In 2023, there are 50 states and 3 territories (Virgin Islands, Guam, and Northern Mariana Islands), and the District of Colombia, submitting data to the national database.

Based on estimates provided by state EMS authorities, the NEMSIS Technical Assistance Center (TAC) collects data from approximately 95% of all EMS agencies in the U.S. that respond to 911 requests for emergency care and transport patients to acute care facilities. The NEMSIS TAC receives records for 75% of all patient contacts that occur on any given day in the U.S., within approximately 10 days. Over 90% of all patient care reports are received within 2 weeks of patient contact.