Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 44, November 2, 2024
(a)
Purpose. An EMS agency
that operates a BLS ambulance service employs one or more BLS ambulances
staffed by an ambulance crew capable of providing medical assessment,
observation, triage, monitoring, treatment and transportation of patients who
require EMS at or below the skill level of an EMT.
(b)
Operating at the AEMT
level. An EMS agency that chooses to operate a BLS ambulance service
that provides EMS at the AEMT level shall apply for Department approval to
operate in that manner through its application for a license as an EMS agency
or an application to amend its EMS agency license. It shall satisfy the
requirements under §
1027.34 (relating to intermediate
advanced life support ambulance service).
(c)
Staffing.
(1) The minimum staffing for a BLS ambulance
crew when responding to a call to provide EMS and transporting a patient is an
EMS provider at or above the EMR level, a second EMS provider at or above the
EMT level and an EMSVO, except that only a two-person ambulance crew is
required if the EMSVO is also one of the EMS providers and an EMS provider
above the EMR level is available to attend to the patient during patient
transport. Until April 11, 2016, an ambulance attendant who has not yet secured
certification as an EMR may substitute for an EMR.
(2) Responding ambulance crew members may
arrive at the scene separately, but the ambulance shall be fully staffed at or
above the required minimum staffing level before transporting a
patient.
(d)
Providing EMS when dispatched with a higher level EMS vehicle
crew. If a BLS ambulance and a higher level EMS vehicle crew are
dispatched to provide EMS for a patient, the following shall apply:
(1) BLS ambulance crew members shall begin
providing EMS to the patient at their skill levels, including transportation of
the patient to a receiving facility if the ambulance crew determines transport
is needed, until higher level EMS is afforded by the arrival of a higher level
EMS provider.
(2) Upon the arrival
of a higher level EMS vehicle crew, the BLS ambulance shall continue
transporting the patient or release the patient to be transported by the higher
level EMS vehicle crew, consistent with the Statewide EMS protocols, as
directed by the EMS provider exercising primary responsibility for the
patient.
(3) The BLS ambulance crew
shall reassume primary responsibility for the patient if that responsibility is
relinquished back to that ambulance crew by the EMS provider of the higher
level EMS vehicle crew who had assumed primary responsibility for the
patient.
(4) A BLS ambulance and
its ambulance crew may transport from a receiving facility a patient who
requires EMS above the skill level at which the ambulance is operating, if the
sending or a receiving facility provides a registered nurse, physician
assistant or physician to supplement the ambulance crew, that person brings on
board the ambulance equipment and supplies to provide the patient with EMS
above the EMS level at which the BLS ambulance is operating to attend to the
EMS needs of the patient during the transport, and that person attends to the
patient during the patient transport.
(e)
Application. For
purposes of this section, the term "higher level EMS vehicle crew" means the
EMS vehicle crew of an intermediate ALS ambulance, intermediate ALS squad
vehicle, ALS ambulance, ALS squad vehicle or air ambulance.
This section cited in 28 Pa. Code §
1027.34 (relating to intermediate
advanced life support ambulance service); 28 Pa. Code §
1027.35 (relating to advanced life
support ambulance service); and 28 Pa. Code §
1027.42 (relating to water
ambulance service).
