Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 9, September 20, 2024
A. All ambulance
services shall be licensed by the Department of Health (LDH). It shall be
unlawful to operate or maintain an ambulance service in the state of Louisiana
without possessing a license from the department. The Department of Health is
the only licensing agency for ambulance services in the state of
Louisiana.
B. No person, firm,
corporation, association or government entity shall conduct, manage, operate,
or maintain an ambulance service in Louisiana without a valid current license
from the department.
1. Exception. No license
shall be required for any hospital that operates a vehicle solely for the
purpose of moving its own patients between parts of its own campus, provided
that all of the following conditions are met:
a. the parts of the hospital's campus are not
more than 10 miles apart;
b. at the
time of transport, the patient is attended by at least two individuals who are
an emergency medical services practitioner, a licensed practical or registered
nurse, or a physician; and
c. the
vehicle utilized by the hospital for transport contains the same equipment as
is required for a licensed ambulance.
C. No person shall conduct, maintain or
operate an ambulance which does not carry with it, in fully operational
condition, equipment consistent with the agency protocol, not to exceed the
Louisiana scope of practice for emergency medical services practitioners
established in
R.S.
40:1133.14. Each ambulance service/provider
shall develop and maintain a written policy identifying the personnel and
equipment required to comply with the provisions of this Chapter.
D. Ground ambulance services shall be
licensed separately from air ambulance services. In those air ambulance
services that are joint ventures, the license shall be issued to the ambulance
service/provider of medical care and services.
E. A separately licensed ambulance service
shall not use a name which is substantially the same as the name of another
ambulance service licensed by the department unless the applicant is part of
the same corporation or is chain affiliated.
F. A license issued to an ambulance service
shall:
1. be issued to the person or entity
named in the license application;
2. be valid only for one service's
headquarters and its substations to which it is issued, and only for the
specific geographic address of that headquarters;
3. be valid for one year from the date of
issuance, unless revoked, suspended, modified or terminated prior to that date
or unless a provisional license is issued;
4. expire on the last day of the twelfth
month after the date of issuance, unless timely renewed by the
service;
5. not be subject to sale,
assignment, donation or other transfer, whether voluntary or involuntary;
and
6. be posted in a conspicuous
place in the ambulance service's headquarters at all times.
G. The department has the
authority to issue the following types of licenses.
1. A full license is issued only to those
applicants that are in substantial compliance with all applicable federal,
state, and local laws, regulations, and policies. The license shall be valid
until the expiration date shown on the license, unless the license is modified,
revoked, suspended or terminated.
2. A provisional license may be issued to
those ambulance services/providers or applicants that do not meet the criteria
for full licensure. The license shall be valid for a period not to exceed six
months.
a. An acceptable plan of correction is
required from the ambulance service/provider for any survey where deficiencies
have been cited, regardless of whether the department takes other action
against the facility for the deficiencies cited in the survey.
b. The ambulance service/provider shall
submit the plan of correction to the department for approval within the
prescribed timeframe, and the ambulance service/provider shall be required to
correct all such noncompliance or deficiencies prior to the expiration of the
provisional license.
c. The
department may conduct a follow-up inspection prior to the expiration of the
provisional license. If at the follow-up inspection, the ambulance
service/provider or applicant has correct all non-compliance or violations, the
department may issues a full license. The full license shall be valid until the
ambulance service's license anniversary date.
d. For an applicant applying for initial
licensure, if the follow-up inspection reveals that the ambulance service
failed to correct all violations, the applicant shall be required to begin the
initial licensing process again by submitting a new initial licensing packet
and the required fee to become licensed.
e. For an existing ambulance service, if the
follow-up inspection reveals that the ambulance service/provider has failed to
correct all violations, the department may reissue a provisional license or
allow the provisional license to expire.
f. A provisional license may be issued by the
department for the following nonexclusive reasons:
i. the applicant or service has more than
five violations of ambulance service regulations during one
inspection;
ii. the applicant or
service has more than three valid complaints in a one-year period;
iii. the department, medical director, or the
quality improvement program have identified medical care that places patient(s)
at risk;
iv. the applicant or
service fails to correct violations within 60 days of being cited, or at the
time of a follow-up inspection, whichever occurs first;
v. the applicant fails to submit assessed
fees after notification by the department; or
vi. there is documented evidence that the
applicant has bribed, intimidated or harassed someone to use the services of
any particular ambulance service.
3. If an existing licensed ambulance
service/provider has been issued a notice of license revocation, suspension,
modification or termination and the ambulance service's/provider's license is
due for annual renewal, the department shall deny the license renewal. The
denial of license renewal of such a license does not affect in any manner the
license revocation, suspension, modification or termination.
AUTHORITY
NOTE: Promulgated in accordance with
R.S.
40:1135.3
