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5.
LEGISLATION COMMITTEE
Meeting Date:
05/07/2015
Subject:
AB 1223 (O'Donnell) Emergency Medical Services: Noncritical Cases
Submitted For:
LEGISLATION COMMITTEE
Department:
County Administrator
Referral No.:
2015-09
Referral Name:
AB 1223 (O'Donnell) Emergency Medical Services: Noncritical Cases
Presenter:
L. DeLaney
Contact:
L. DeLaney, 925-335-1097
Information
Referral History:
This bill was referred to the Legislation Committee by Emergency Medical Services Director Pat Frost.
Referral Update:
Assembly Bill (AB) 1223 would expand the facilities which are eligible for reimbursement from the Maddy Emergency Medical Services Fund to include any licensed clinic or mental health facility and approved paramedic receiving stations for treatment of emergency patients. The bill would require a local emergency medical services agency to include in policies and procedures criteria relating to ambulance patient offload time, and for the transport of a patient to an alternative emergency department or facility, for reporting such patient offload time.
Status: 04/14/2015 In ASSEMBLY. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Committee on HEALTH.
Background: Existing law establishes the Maddy Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Fund, and authorizes each county to establish an emergency medical services fund for reimbursement of costs related to emergency medical services. Existing law limits payments made from the fund to claims for care rendered by physicians to patients who are initially medically screened, evaluated, treated, or stabilized in specified facilities, including a site that was approved by a county prior to January 1, 1990, as a paramedic receiving station for the treatment of emergency patients.
This bill would expand those specified facilities to include any licensed clinic or mental health facility, and any site approved by a county as a paramedic receiving station for the treatment of emergency patients. This bill would make conforming changes.
Existing law, the Emergency Medical Services System and the Prehospital Emergency Medical Care Personnel Act, authorizes each county to develop an emergency medical services program. The act further authorizes a local emergency medical services (EMS) agency to develop and submit a plan to the Emergency Medical Services Authority for an emergency medical services system, and requires the local EMS agency, using state minimum standards, to establish policies and procedures to assure medical control of the emergency medical services system that may require basic life support emergency medical transportation services to meet any medical control requirements, including dispatch, patient destination policies, patient care guidelines, and quality assurance requirements.
This bill would require a local EMS agency to include in those policies and procedures specified policies, including the establishment and enforcement of criteria relating to ambulance patient offload time, as defined, and for the transport of a patient to an alternate emergency department or facility under specified circumstances. The bill would require the authority to develop a statewide standard methodology for the calculation and reporting by a local EMS agency of ambulance patient offload time.
Recommendation(s)/Next Step(s):
CONSIDER recommending a position of "Oppose" to the Board of Supervisors for AB 1223 (O'Donnell) Emergency Medical Services: Noncritical Cases.
Fiscal Impact (if any):
No impact.
Attachments
Bill Text
"Oppose" Letter from EMSAAC
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