In 1993, Cape Breton Island native Dr. Ron Stewart, who was instrumental in organizing emergency medical services in southern California earlier in his career during the 1970s, was elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly and was appointed Minister of Health.

Dr. Stewart quickly commissioned several reports on health care reform, one of which was conducted by Dr Mike Murphy, the director of emergency services at the Isaac Walton Killam Children's Hospital and the Victoria General Hospital[1] Emergency Department which offered a comprehensive evaluation on the state of the province's ambulance services.

In January 2008, Nova Scotia became the first province in Canada to offer all of its residents the benefits of electronic patient records throughout the ambulance system.

[4] EMC operates a central communications dispatch centre in Burnside Business Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia for coordinating emergency medical services across the province.

There are 65 strategically located ambulance bases throughout the province, some of which are owned by EHS, others are rented by EMC (e.g. volunteer fire departments).

A model of care in Long & Brier Islands where paramedics apply their training and skills in community based environments.

The Long and Brier model has successfully achieved greater access to primary health care services for the residents of these two islands.

Currently the data collection has shown a 23% decrease in emergency department visits by islanders and an increase in the project’s patient contacts by 250 to 300 during the 2002/2003 fiscal year.

The benefit to CDHA is fewer patients are being transported to their facilities - that means less emergency department congestion, reduced consumption and alignment with their focus on patient-centred care.

[11][12][13] Heart attack patients who are experiencing chest pain and call 911 will receive faster treatment through new training by Advance Care Paramedics.

As part of government's Better Care Sooner health plan, the provincial prehospital STEMI Reperfusion Strategy (RESTORE) expanded province wide.

The Siren ePCR software, developed by Medusa Medical Technologies, is used by paramedics to chart the care they provide to patients in the field.

Paramedics can now call up a patient's MedicAlert record, to obtain critical data such as allergy, medication, and physician information.