Protocol lookup
How to look up your county's EMS protocol in under a minute
To find your county's EMS protocol, choose your state and county, search by condition, drug, or protocol number, and read the source label on the result. The label tells you whether you are looking at your county's book, your state's published set, or the national model guidelines. Protocol Guide does all three steps in one search, and every result names the protocol book it came from.
This guide walks through the lookup, the search terms that work best, and the checks to run before you rely on what you find.
Who writes your county's protocols
EMS protocols are not national. In most places a county or regional EMS agency, working with its medical director, approves the protocols that crews in that area follow. California calls these agencies LEMSAs, local EMS agencies. Some states publish one statewide set instead, and others leave the details to regional councils or individual medical directors.
That is why a general web search for "anaphylaxis protocol" returns a pile of documents from different jurisdictions with no clear sign of which one applies to you. The question to ask first is "whose book is this?" Protocol Guide answers that question before it shows you any text.
Step by step
- Choose your county. Pick your state and county, or search by agency name. The search is limited to the agency mapped to that county, so you do not get another county's wording mixed in.
- Search in plain words. Type what you would say to a partner: "pediatric seizure," "chest pain," "epi dose anaphylaxis." You can also type by voice.
- Read the source label first. Each result names the protocol book it came from. Check the label before you read the body.
- Open the source document. When we have a link to the original, the result links to it. Read the section in its original layout, including tables and footnotes.
- Check the edition. Find the revision or effective date on the source document and compare it with the one your agency is currently using. More on that in how to tell whether a protocol is current.
If you are new to the tool, the free plan includes unlimited protocol search for one county, so you can run this routine a few times before deciding anything else. See pricing for what Pro and the Department plan add.
Search terms that work
You do not need the exact title of a protocol. A few habits help.
- Use the condition or the complaint. "Anaphylaxis," "overdose," "stroke assessment," and "burn" all work. Short beats long.
- Use drug names or the abbreviation you actually say. Common abbreviations are expanded before the search runs, so "epi" finds epinephrine and "NTG" finds nitroglycerin. Small typos in common medical terms are corrected.
- Use the protocol number if you know it. Numbering belongs to each agency. Los Angeles County, for example, numbers its allergy and anaphylaxis treatment protocol 1219, with 1219-P as the pediatric version. Another county's 1219 can point to a different topic, so keep your county selected when you search by number.
- Search for the procedure, not the sentence. "Intraosseous access" will find the right section faster than a full question.
If a search returns nothing useful, try the plain-language version of the same idea, or search the broader category first and narrow from there.
What the source label means
Every result comes from one of three source sets. The app says which one, so you never have to guess.
| Label | What it is | When you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Local or regional book | The protocol book your county or regional EMS agency publishes | We have your agency's book |
| State set | The protocols your state publishes | Your county uses the state's set, or there is no local book in our library |
| National model | The NASEMSO National Model Guidelines | The fallback when neither of the above applies. It is labeled as not your local protocols |
Counties covering about 3 in 10 Americans use their local or regional EMS book. About 4 in 10 use their state's published protocols, and the rest use the NASEMSO National Model Guidelines. That split comes from our county-to-protocol mapping as of 2026-09-29. The reasons behind it are in why county protocols differ from state and national guidelines.
Check before you rely on it
A search result is an excerpt of a published document. It can be incomplete, and the document can be out of date. Four checks take less than a minute.
- Does the label match the book you work under or study for?
- Does the source document open, and does the section match the excerpt?
- Is the edition the one your agency currently uses?
- Does it agree with what your medical director and training officer teach?
Protocol Guide is an educational study and reference tool. It is not medical direction and not clinical decision support. Your agency's current protocols and your online medical direction decide what you do on a call. Do not type patient names, dates of birth, incident numbers, or other identifying details into a search.
When your county is missing
If the label shows a state set or the national model and you expected your own county's book, your agency may not be in the library yet. Email support@protocol-guide.com with your agency name and a link to where the book is published.
You can also browse by state. The California protocol hub is one example of how those pages list the counties we cover and which source set each one uses.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I find my county's EMS protocols?
Start with your agency's website or your medical director's office, since they publish the official book. Protocol Guide gives you a faster search across published books, with each result linked to its source document when we have the link.
Is the first result always the right protocol?
No. Read the label and open the source document before you rely on any result. Search ranks excerpts, and it cannot know which edition your agency currently uses.
Can I search by protocol number?
Yes, with your county selected. Protocol numbers belong to each agency, so the same number can mean different things in different counties.
Does Protocol Guide replace my agency's protocol book?
No. It is a study and reference tool built from published documents. Your agency's current protocols and your medical director govern patient care.