A free, fill-in project charter template for EMS agencies — the document that authorizes a project before planning begins.
A project charter is the document that authorizes a project and gives the project manager the authority to spend the agency's time and money on it. It is the first deliverable of the Initiating phase — sign it before planning work begins, not after.
Keep it short. A charter is one to three pages. If a section runs longer than a paragraph or two, that detail belongs in the project plan, not here.
Replace every italic prompt with your project's information, then delete the prompt. A fully worked example follows the blank template.
| Project name | Plain-language name. "ESO ePCR Transition," not "Project Phoenix." |
| Agency / department | |
| Charter date | |
| Charter version | |
| Prepared by |
| Role | Name | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Project sponsor | Funds the project and owns the business decision. Usually a chief or director. | |
| Project manager | Runs the project day to day. State the spending and decision authority granted — e.g., "may approve changes under $5,000 and adjust the internal schedule within the approved go-live date." | |
| Medical director | Name if the project touches clinical care, protocols, or documentation. |
Two or three sentences. What problem does this project solve, and what happens if the agency does nothing? Tie it to something concrete — a compliance deadline, an expiring contract, a quality gap, a grant requirement.
Three to five objectives, each one measurable. "Reduce chart completion time" is a wish; "reduce median chart completion time from 14 to 8 minutes by go-live + 90 days" is an objective.
What this project will deliver.
What it explicitly will not, so no one assumes otherwise.
The tangible things the project produces.
How the agency will know the project succeeded, measured at a stated point in time. These should trace directly back to Section 4.
| Milestone | Target date |
|---|---|
| Project kickoff | |
| e.g., Requirements approved | |
| e.g., Vendor contract signed | |
| e.g., Test environment validated | |
| Go-live | |
| Project close |
| Item | Estimate |
|---|---|
| Vendor / software cost | |
| Internal staff time (backfill, overtime) | |
| Training & travel | |
| Contingency | |
| Total |
Name the funding source — operating budget, grant, or capital. If grant-funded, note the grant period and any reporting obligations.
| Stakeholder / group | Interest in the project |
|---|---|
| Field crews | |
| Dispatch | |
| QA / quality | |
| Billing | |
| State EMS office | |
What you are taking as true. If an assumption proves false, the plan changes.
Fixed limits the project must work within — a hard compliance date, a frozen budget, a staffing cap, a required vendor.
| Risk | Potential impact | Initial response |
|---|---|---|
This is a first pass, not a risk register. The full register is built during planning.
By signing, the sponsor authorizes the project and the project manager's authority as described above.
| Role | Name | Signature | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project sponsor | |||
| Project manager | |||
| Medical director (if applicable) |
The same charter, filled in for a Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) implementation — the same project used in the Strada EMS RACI Matrix template, so the two tools line up.
| Project name | Field POCUS Implementation |
| Agency / department | Riverbend County EMS — Clinical Services |
| Charter date | March 3, 2026 |
| Charter version | 1.0 |
| Prepared by | Clinical Project Lead |
| Role | Name | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Project sponsor | Deputy Chief of Clinical Services | Owns the budget and the go / no-go decision. |
| Project manager | Clinical Project Lead | May approve changes under $5,000 and adjust the internal schedule within the approved go-live date. Changes to scope, budget, or go-live date require sponsor approval. |
| Medical director | Agency Medical Director | Owns the POCUS clinical protocol, scope of practice, and credentialing standard. |
Riverbend County EMS has no prehospital ultrasound capability. Neighboring systems use POCUS to improve triage of trauma and undifferentiated hypotension, and the agency's medical director has approved a limited POCUS scope of practice. Without a structured implementation, equipment risks being purchased and underused, and uncredentialed use creates clinical and liability exposure.
Device selection and purchase; protocol and documentation build in the ePCR; initial and recurring crew training; a QA image-review workflow; medical-director credentialing.
Ultrasound use by EMT-level providers; integration of images into the hospital PACS; billing for POCUS exams.
| Milestone | Target date |
|---|---|
| Project kickoff | March 2026 |
| Protocol & credentialing standard approved | April 2026 |
| Devices selected and ordered | May 2026 |
| ePCR documentation build complete | June 2026 |
| Crew training complete | August 2026 |
| Go-live | September 2026 |
| Project close | January 2027 |
| Item | Estimate |
|---|---|
| Ultrasound devices (4 units) | $48,000 |
| Crew training (instructor + backfill) | $22,000 |
| ePCR configuration | $4,000 |
| Contingency (10%) | $7,400 |
| Total | $81,400 |
Funded from the FY26 capital budget. Not grant-funded.
| Stakeholder / group | Interest in the project |
|---|---|
| Field crews | Trained and credentialed; the primary users |
| Medical director | Owns the clinical protocol and credentialing |
| QA / quality | Runs the image-review workflow |
| Receiving hospitals | Affected by the handoff of prehospital findings |
| Finance | Owns the capital expenditure |
| Risk | Potential impact | Initial response |
|---|---|---|
| Slow crew credentialing | Go-live slips; devices sit unused | Build recurring training dates into the schedule from kickoff |
| ePCR cannot support image documentation | Rework; QA workflow gap | Confirm with the ePCR vendor before devices are ordered |
| Inconsistent image quality | Clinical risk; QA backlog | Medical-director-led QA review from the first credentialed shift |
| Role | Name | Signature | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project sponsor | Deputy Chief of Clinical Services | ||
| Project manager | Clinical Project Lead | ||
| Medical director | Agency Medical Director |
Strada EMS Consulting — EMS-native consulting for technology transitions, clinical quality, and project management. This template is free to use and adapt. For a charter built around your agency's project, start a conversation.
If you'd rather have the charter — and the project behind it — built around your agency's vendor, timeline, and org chart, that's a conversation worth having.