Organizational policies

Publishing principles

TPF publishes policy briefs, commissioned system evaluation reports, peer-reviewed journal articles and the Governing Care newsletter. All of them are in the TPF publications library. The principles below govern TPF’s publishing work.

Evidence grounding. Every claim in a TPF publication rests on evidence that can be checked. TPF does not publish a claim it cannot support with data, peer-reviewed literature or direct field observation. Where evidence is limited or contested, TPF says so directly.

Citation standards. TPF publications follow the citation standards of the American Psychological Association (APA), 7th edition. TPF does not fabricate citations. If a source cannot be verified, TPF removes the claim it supports instead of softening or hedging it.

Commissioned work disclosure. A report commissioned by a state agency, county government or other client is identified as commissioned work. The client that commissions it does not control what it says. If a client has asked TPF to keep specific findings confidential, the publication discloses that limit.

Audience. TPF writes for practitioners, policymakers and researchers in emergency medical services (EMS), rural health and public health governance. It does not write for general consumer audiences. Its work is not intended as individual medical or legal advice.

Independence. TPF principals decide what TPF publishes, including in Governing Care. Those decisions need no approval from funders, clients or partner organizations. TPF accepts no advertising on its platforms.

Ownership and funding

The Paramedic Foundation is an independent Minnesota nonprofit corporation and a tax-exempt charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. EIN: 46-3271401. TPF has no parent organization and is not a subsidiary of any other entity.

Registered names. TPF also operates under assumed names registered with the Minnesota Secretary of State: American College of Paramedics, American Paramedic Association, Global Paramedic Research Alliance, International Roundtable on Community Paramedicine, Paramedic Foundation, and Ultra-Endurance Sports Science & Medicine. Each registered name is a name of TPF and not a separate organization. These policies apply to work published under each of them.

Governance. A volunteer Board of Directors governs TPF. The board sets the organization’s direction, approves major financial decisions and makes sure the work stays in line with TPF’s charitable mission. The Team page shows who serves on the board.

Revenue sources. TPF’s revenue comes from consulting and evaluation contracts with state EMS offices, regional advisory bodies, county governments, hospital systems and federal grant-funded projects. TPF receives no advertising revenue and does not sell personal data. A small share comes from speaking engagements and technical assistance work. Another small share comes from membership dues received under the American College of Paramedics name.

Grants and federal funding. TPF principals have worked on federally funded projects under contracts with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and other federal agencies. When federal funding supports a specific deliverable, the publication or report says so.

Conflicts of interest. TPF principals must disclose any potential conflict of interest that bears on a consulting engagement or publication. If a conflict exists, or could reasonably be seen to exist, the work product discloses it.

Feedback and transparency policy

TPF answers to the communities, agencies and practitioners its work is meant to serve. It takes feedback seriously and has no interest in defending work that is wrong or out of date.

How to reach TPF. Send questions, corrections and substantive feedback on any TPF publication or deliverable to info@paramedicfoundation.org. Include the publication title, the claim or passage at issue and the nature of your concern.

Response commitment. TPF will acknowledge substantive feedback within 10 business days. If a concern raises a question of fact, TPF looks into it and responds with what it found. TPF does not promise that every disagreement will lead to a change. It does commit to weighing each evidence-based challenge on its merits.

Public accountability. When TPF’s work has informed legislation, a regulatory decision or an organization’s policy, TPF holds itself accountable to the public those decisions affect. It is accountable to that public as well as to the client who commissioned the work.

Corrections policy

TPF has a standing commitment to correct errors in its published work. This policy applies to policy briefs, reports, Governing Care newsletter issues and any other content published under the TPF name. It also applies to content TPF principals publish in their TPF capacity.

Factual errors. If a published claim is factually incorrect, TPF will issue a correction. The correction is added to the original document or newsletter issue as a clearly marked notice. The notice states the original claim, the correct information and the date of the correction. TPF does not silently edit published work.

Analytical errors. If an error in method affects a report’s findings, TPF will issue a revised version of the document. The revised version carries a change log that shows what was revised and why. If the flawed analysis informed decisions by the client who commissioned the work, TPF notifies that client directly.

Journal articles. For a peer-reviewed article in an outside journal, including the International Journal of Paramedicine, the journal’s own corrections policy applies. TPF will cooperate fully with any journal’s correction or retraction process.

Scope. This policy does not apply to opinion pieces or analytical commentary where the disagreement is about interpretation rather than fact. Reasonable people can draw different conclusions from the same evidence. This policy covers errors of fact and method. It does not cover differences of professional judgment.

To report a possible error, contact info@paramedicfoundation.org.

Ethics policy

The Paramedic Foundation holds its principals, board members and consultant subject matter experts to explicit standards of conduct, both professional and organizational. These standards describe how TPF actually operates. They set out the obligations TPF accepts when it takes on consulting engagements, publishes work or represents the organization in public forums.

Integrity of work product. TPF does not shape findings to please a client. A system evaluation may show a system broken in its structure, a financial model that cannot last, or failures of governance. When it does, TPF reports those findings clearly and completely. Clients engage TPF for an accurate picture of their situation, whether or not that picture is favorable. A principal who believes a client is pressing to change findings is expected to disclose that pressure to the board and, if necessary, to decline the engagement.

TPF does not publish work it cannot defend on methodological grounds. The work product states plainly where data are limited, where evidence is contested, or where a conclusion rests on professional judgment rather than demonstrable fact. TPF does not claim certainty it does not have.

Conflicts of interest. TPF principals disclose any financial, professional or personal relationship that could reasonably be seen to influence their work on an engagement or publication. They must disclose it before the work begins, without waiting for a concern to be raised. If a conflict is found to be material, the principal steps away from that work. The board has final authority over decisions on conflicts.

Some organizations have interests directly adverse to a community or agency TPF is serving at the same time. TPF does not accept consulting engagements from them. If an apparent conflict comes up during an engagement, all affected parties are notified and the board decides what to do.

Use of position and credentials. Principals describe their TPF roles accurately. They do not claim that TPF endorses a position that is their own. The Paramedic Foundation’s name and reputation are not used to advance personal commercial interests, political positions, or the interests of an organization outside a disclosed TPF engagement.

Any academic credential, clinical license or professional certification claimed in connection with TPF work must be current and stated accurately. TPF does not tolerate misrepresented credentials.

Confidentiality. TPF keeps client data, organizational records and information disclosed during an engagement strictly confidential. TPF does not use information from a consulting relationship for any purpose outside that engagement unless the client gives explicit consent. This obligation continues after the engagement ends.

Some consulting engagements involve access to patient data, protected health information or personally identifiable information. In those engagements, TPF complies fully with applicable federal and state law, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) where it applies.

Public conduct. TPF principals are expected to act with professional integrity in every public forum. That includes academic conferences, legislative settings, media appearances and online platforms. They answer disagreement with other organizations or individuals through evidence and argument. They do not use misrepresentation, personal attack or the abuse of institutional position.

TPF engages in good faith with criticism of its work. Principals do not use the organization’s platform to retaliate against individuals or organizations who raise legitimate concerns.

Accountability. Send concerns about a possible violation of this policy to the board of directors at info@paramedicfoundation.org. The board will review each concern on its merits and respond within 15 business days. If a violation is substantiated, the board will decide on the right remedy, up to and including ending a principal’s or consultant’s relationship with TPF.

Diversity policy

The Paramedic Foundation’s work spans rural Montana and frontier Alaska, urban California and the Canadian Maritimes, Aboriginal communities in the Australian interior and village health programs in the Aleutian Islands. TPF principals have built careers in places as different as a big-city public health department and a one-paramedic county covering thousands of square miles of frontier. That range is deliberate, and it is the basis of what makes the analytical work credible.

TPF holds a specific and considered view of diversity. The most lasting insights in EMS policy and system design come from people who have lived and worked inside the systems they analyze. Reading about fragile rural EMS differs from having responded to a cardiac arrest 45 minutes from the nearest hospital. A governance framework that works in a dense suburban system will not automatically carry over to a frontier system, where the paramedic is also the fire chief and the school bus driver. Experience produces knowledge that credentials alone cannot replace.

Diversity of lived and professional experience. TPF actively seeks principals and consultants whose backgrounds span different kinds of systems, care settings, regulatory settings and communities. That includes rural, frontier and urban practice; paid, combination and volunteer agencies; tribal and indigenous health systems; and EMS governance models in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland. It also includes physicians, nurses, paramedics, public health professionals, geographers, financial analysts and policy researchers. The problems TPF addresses cannot be solved from within any single discipline.

TPF recognizes that communities differ in their access to emergency care, and that those differences are not random. Communities that EMS systems have historically underserved know specifically what those systems fail to do and why. That knowledge has value for the analysis and matters to the organization. TPF does not treat the views of underserved communities as a side issue. They often give the sharpest view of what is wrong.

Diversity of professional and policy opinion. EMS governance, scope of practice, workforce structure and financing are contested areas. Reasonable, experienced practitioners hold real differences of view on them. They differ on the professionalization of paramedicine, the right boundaries of community paramedicine, the role of medical direction, and how EMS relates to the wider health system. TPF does not impose an internal orthodoxy on these questions. TPF principals are expected to follow the evidence and argue from it. When principals disagree on a contested professional question, TPF sees that as a mark of serious thinking and does not manage it as a problem.

TPF engages with international models because they test the assumptions built into any single system. What works in Renfrew County challenges what rural Ohio assumes is necessary. What Alaska’s Community Health Aide Program has shown for six decades challenges what the continental United States assumes is impossible. Learning from different models of care delivery is essential to doing this work well.

Inclusion in practice. TPF does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law in its selection of board members, principals, consultants, or collaborators. Engagement decisions are based on relevant expertise, professional track record, and alignment with TPF’s mission.

TPF recognizes that demographic patterns that do not reflect the communities EMS serves have historically shaped the profession. Professional organizations in this field have sometimes reproduced those patterns. TPF regards this history as relevant. As a small organization, TPF has limited ability to reshape the profession’s demographics on its own. It is committed to keeping exclusionary patterns out of its own work and partnerships.

A note on editorial content. In TPF’s published work, diversity of perspective means taking seriously the evidence and arguments that challenge common assumptions, including TPF’s own. TPF does not publish only work that confirms what it already believes. It does not avoid difficult findings because they complicate a preferred account. The goal of the publishing work is accuracy, even when accuracy is uncomfortable.

These policies were adopted in April 2026 and apply to all TPF work product, consulting engagements, and public communications from that date forward. Send questions to info@paramedicfoundation.org.