Legislative framework for pre-hospital care

The following topics are commonly addressed by law or by administrative regulation [50] training, certification and licensure of providers of pre-hospital emergency medical care;

• Services, including minimum skills requirements and provisions for disciplinary actions
• Scope of practice (allowable skills) of pre-hospital providers and the conditions under which they may use these skills
• Scope and authority of medical direction, including protocols determining a patient’s destination, triage guidelines and protocols for interfacility transfer
• Licensure or authorization of emergency medical services, including medical
• Direction and training, and vehicles, including equipment, communications and others
• Complaint investigation procedures
• Quality improvement
• Financing
• Designation of medical facilities as specialty care centres if appropriate
• Data collection, reporting and confidentiality
• Accreditation of education programmes
• Liability protection of providers and physicians, if needed
• Communications requirements
• Access to the emergency medical care system, including a nationwide emergency telephone number
• Emergency medical service catchments areas and mutual aid requirements; disaster response.