| Chapter 372 |
| 2021 -- H 6282 SUBSTITUTE A Enacted 07/13/2021 |
| A N A C T |
| RELATING TO HEALTH AND SAFETY -- EMERGENCY MEDICAL TRANSPORTATION SERVICES--AMBULANCE SERVICE COORDINATING BOARD |
Introduced By: Representatives Fellela, Azzinaro, Casey, and Messier |
| Date Introduced: April 29, 2021 |
| It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows: |
| SECTION 1. Sections 23-4.1-3 and 23-4.1-8 of the General Laws in Chapter 23-4.1 entitled |
| "Emergency Medical Transportation Services" are hereby amended to read as follows: |
| 23-4.1-3. Duties of the director. |
| (a) The director of health, referred to as the "director," shall have full authority to |
| implement the provisions of this chapter and shall be guided by the purposes and intent of this |
| chapter. |
| (b) The director shall cooperate with hospitals, furnishers of ambulance services, local |
| governments, police departments, fire departments, emergency units, first aid groups, or any other |
| groups that furnish or work with groups that furnish emergency medical services. |
| (c) The director shall cooperate with concerned agencies and individuals to coordinate |
| programs for training emergency medical technicians, and other persons who provide emergency |
| medical care services, including dispatchers. If funds are available, the director may establish |
| training grants to aid groups and communities to train people in emergency medical care. |
| (d) The standards used by the director under this chapter shall be reasonable and based |
| upon local and statewide conditions. However, the minimum standards imposed by the director |
| may be the standards issued by any responsible organization having its main concern the disposition |
| of injured persons. |
| (e) The director shall annually submit a report to the governor and the general assembly. |
| (f) The director shall cooperate in the coordination of ambulance services throughout the |
| state with local or state police and fire authorities and other concerned agencies and individuals, |
| including the state civil defense agency. This coordination may be tested by local exercises from |
| time to time. |
| (g) The director shall cooperate with concerned agencies and individuals in the |
| development of a state communications network involving the transportation of injured persons by |
| vehicles licensed under this chapter and hospitals. The director may allocate available funds for the |
| establishing and maintenance of a communications network involving vehicles, hospitals, and other |
| emergency treating organizations within the state. |
| (h) The director shall cooperate with concerned agencies and individuals in the |
| development of a plan for the coordination of ambulance dispatching services with the state. |
| (i) When proposing standards under this chapter, the director shall prepare and publish for |
| the board a financial impact statement. |
| 23-4.1-8. Applications for license. |
| (a) Any person, firm, partnership, corporation, municipality, volunteer units, or any other |
| business or organization providing ambulance service shall, at the time of license application, |
| furnish the director of health with a list of all persons authorized to act as an attendant of any |
| ambulance owned or operated by the applicant. Further, all applicants shall submit to the director |
| the person who shall serve as the emergency medical service physician medical director (the |
| “physician medical director”). The physician medical director shall be a physician board-certified |
| or board-eligible in emergency medicine and/or E.M.S. The physician medical director must have |
| an active Rhode Island license to practice medicine. The ambulance service coordinating advisory |
| board shall establish standards for the duties and responsibilities of the physician medical director. |
| (b) The director shall provide application forms for licenses under this section. |
| (c) Subject to the approval of the board, the director shall make reasonable minimum |
| standards of health, performance, fitness, education, and moral fitness. The director may use the |
| guides established by the American College of Surgeons' Board of Regents as a standard, except |
| that a felony conviction shall not necessarily disqualify an attendant. |
| (d) Each applicant shall hold a current certificate of completion of at least an emergency |
| medical technical-ambulance course approved by the board. Each applicant shall hold a current |
| certificate of completion of either: |
| (1) An emergency medical responder course; |
| (2) An emergency medical technician course; |
| (3) An advanced emergency medical technician course; |
| (4) An advanced emergency medical technician-cardiac course; or |
| (5) A paramedic course. |
| These courses shall be approved by the board. The certificate needed shall be decided by |
| the person, firm, partnership, corporation, municipality , or any other business or organization |
| providing ambulance service employing the individual licensee or in the case of a volunteer unit |
| the unit for whom the individual licensee is volunteering for. |
| (e) If there is a hardship imposed upon any applicant for a license because of an unusual |
| circumstance, the applicant may apply to the director for a temporary waiver of the licensing |
| provisions for good cause shown. The director has the power to waive licensing provisions for a |
| period not to exceed ninety (90) days. |
| SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage. |
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| LC002734/SUB A/2 |
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