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 1027.39 - Critical care transport ambulance service

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 28, July 13, 2024
(a)
Purpose.
An EMS agency
					 that operates a critical care transport ambulance service employs one or more
					 ALS ambulances staffed by a crew capable of providing medical assessment,
					 observation, triage, monitoring, treatment and transportation of patients who
					 require EMS at the skill level needed to attend to and transport critically ill
					 or injured patients between receiving facilities.
(b)
Staffing.
The minimum
					 staffing for a critical care transport crew when responding to a call to
					 provide critical care transport is an EMSVO and two EMS providers above the
					 AEMT level with at least one of the EMS providers being a paramedic, PHPE, PHRN
					 or a PHP who has successfully completed a critical care transport educational
					 program approved by the Department. Provided that one of the EMS providers is a
					 paramedic, PHPE, PHRN or a PHP who has successfully completed a critical care
					 transport educational program approved by the Department, another health care
					 provider or providers may substitute for a second EMS provider above the AEMT
					 level to attend to a patient with special medical needs if the EMS agency has
					 submitted to the Department, and received the Department's approval, a plan
					 that provides for substitution to attend to the needs of those patients in
					 accordance with the Department-approved protocol the EMS agency has established
					 for its critical care transport service. Responding crew members may arrive at
					 the scene separately, but the ambulance shall be fully staffed at or above the
					 minimum staffing level before transporting a patient.
(c)
Transport of critical care
					 patient.
During patient transport, two EMS providers who satisfy the
					 minimum EMS provider staffing requirement in subsection (b) shall accompany the
					 patient in the patient compartment of the ambulance and be available to attend
					 to the patient during the transport.
(d)
Expanded scope of
					 practice.
When providing EMS through a critical care transport
					 ambulance service, the scope of practice of an EMS provider above the AEMT
					 level is expanded. This expansion will include EMS skills and the use of
					 equipment in addition to those included in the EMS provider's general scope of
					 practice if the EMS provider has received education to perform those skills and
					 use that equipment by having successfully completed a critical care transport
					 educational program approved by the Department. The EMS provider is required to
					 be able to document having received that education and to demonstrate
					 competency in the performance of those skills and use of that equipment to the
					 EMS agency medical director. Performance of those skills and use of that
					 equipment by that level of EMS provider will be authorized by the Department as
					 published in a notice in the
Pennsylvania Bulletin
. An EMS
					 provider shall perform these skills as directed by the Statewide EMS protocols
					 applicable to a critical care transport ambulance service or as otherwise
					 directed by a medical command physician.