[1] The mission of the California EMS Authority is to ensure quality patient care by administering an effective, statewide system of coordinated emergency medical care, injury prevention, and disaster medical response.

In California, the EMS Authority is responsible for paramedic licensure, emergency medical technician regulations, trauma center and trauma system standards, ambulance service coordination, and disaster medical response.

This includes maintenance, staffing and deployment of three 200-bed mobile field hospitals, 39 Disaster Medical Support Units that supply ambulance strike teams, and three 40-person medical assistance teams that are prepared to respond to a disaster.

The program has roughly 14,000 registrants representing 47 professional license types including doctors, dentists, nurses, paramedics, pharmacists, technicians, etc.

This legislation (SB 125) was the culmination of several years of effort by local administrators, health care providers, consumer groups, and legislators to establish a state lead agency and centralized resource to deal with emergency and disaster medical services.