Pennsylvania Code
Title 28 - HEALTH AND SAFETY
Part VII - Emergency Medical Services
Subpart A - EMS System
Chapter 1027 - EMS AGENCIES
Subchapter B - EMS AGENCY SERVICES
Section 1027.38 - Advanced life support squad service

Universal Citation: 28 PA Code ยง 1027.38

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 44, November 2, 2024

(a) Purpose. An ALS squad vehicle transports EMS providers above the AEMT level, along with equipment and supplies, to rendezvous with an ambulance crew or to respond prior to the arrival of an ambulance, to provide medical assessment, monitoring, treatment and observation of a patient who requires EMS at or above the skill level of an AEMT. An ALS squad vehicle may not transport patients.

(b) Staffing. The minimum staffing for an ALS squad vehicle crew when responding to a call to provide EMS is an EMS provider above the AEMT level and an EMSVO, except that only one person is required if the EMSVO is also the EMS provider.

(c) Providing EMS when dispatched with a lower level ambulance crew. If an ALS squad vehicle and a lower level ambulance crew are dispatched to provide EMS for a patient, the following shall apply:

(1) Upon arrival of an EMS provider from the ALS squad vehicle who is a higher level EMS provider than the highest level EMS provider of the lower level ambulance crew who is present, that EMS provider shall assume primary responsibility for the patient.

(2) If the patient is assessed by the ALS squad vehicle crew to require EMS above the skill level at which the lower level ambulance crew is operating, and requires transport to a receiving facility, an appropriately certified member of the ALS squad vehicle shall attend to the patient during the transport by the lower level ambulance crew. That EMS provider shall use the equipment and supplies on the lower level ambulance, supplemented with the additional equipment and supplies, including medications, from the ALS squad vehicle.

(3) If at the scene or during patient transport by the lower level ambulance crew, the ALS squad vehicle crew determines that the lower level ambulance crew is operating at the skill level needed to attend to the patient's EMS needs, consistent with the Statewide EMS protocols, the EMS provider of the ALS squad vehicle who is responsible for the overall management of the EMS provided to the patient may relinquish responsibility for the patient to the lower level ambulance crew.

(d) Application. For purposes of this section, the term "lower level ambulance crew" means the ambulance crew of a BLS ambulance or intermediate ALS ambulance.

Disclaimer: These regulations may not be the most recent version. Pennsylvania may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.
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