Leadership in healthcare quality: strengthening compliance capacity for the regulations relating to standards for emergency medical services

Ethical Clearance Certificate No. 2021 FBMSREC 078Leadership competencies are key to healthcare quality. This study addresses the eligibility of Emergency Medical Service (EMS) and compliance with regulations for quality standards. A mixed methods explanatory sequential design was used to investigate EMS quality-related leadership and management capacity. A survey of EMS managers from nine provinces defined the problem space for quality improvement. Non-participant observations and interviews with key informants offered a deep appreciation for factors enabling and impeding quality improvement. The findings exposed the need to develop EMS quality management competencies. The survey data and ATLAS.ti codebook summary from the non-participant observations and interviews are presented. These findings are of value to EMS and other public service policymakers, managers, clinicians and academics in South Africa and other emerging EMS health systems.