The story of Vanessa Carrillo Anyone who follows the EMS news is well acquainted with the high number of ambulance crashes. However, this lawsuit followed a serious crash with serious allegations of improperly functioning air bags for the ambulance service involved. On Dec. 14, 2010, at about 2:30 a.m., 19-year-old Vanessa Carrillo, an EMT employed […]
Avoid even the suspicion of fraud At the risk of sounding alarmist, when it comes to compliance, it’s now crunch time. New laws have given the government—and private whistleblowers (which can include competitors, disgruntled current or former employees and others)—unprecedented power to cripple the cash flow of any ambulance service, public or private, even when […]
Title II of GINA bans harassment, discrimination & retaliation Most EMS employers are familiar with state and federal laws that prohibit employers from discriminating against their employees on the basis of their membership in a protected class. Some of these categories easily spring to mind, such as race, religion, national origin and age. However, both […]
Privilege does not extend to EMS providers in Nevada A new decision from the Supreme Court of Nevada tells us that, at least in that state, conversations between EMS personnel and patients are not protected and can be used against the patient in a court of law.1 Most states have an evidentiary privilege known as […]
NAEMSP publishes position statement The National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP) recently published a resource document to support its position paper on expert witness testimony. The resource document articulates the organization’s standards for expert witness testimony and sets the framework for expert opinion testimony in litigation by its unique membership, which includes both physicians and […]
The “traditional” responsibilities of EMS medical directors have been well-defined over the years. These include issues that can best be described as clinical oversight of EMS, including protocol development, online medical direction, provider training and skill verification, oversight of controlled substances and quality-improvement activities. However, there’s a great deal of untapped potential for EMS agencies […]
Decision addresses bundled payment schemes On Dec, 28, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health & Human Services issued an important advisory opinion addressing the difficult topic of discounted rates provided to nursing homes (and, by implication, hospitals) for transports for which the facility has financial responsibility. The opinion, No. 10–26, […]
I sat in court the other day listening to the mantra of a plaintiff’s attorney: “They didn’t follow their own rules. They made these rules, and then they failed to follow them.” The allegation had to do with an emergency department protocol saying that all patients who came in complaining of chest pain that was […]
Although a growing trend in health care is resulting in more state laws requiring disclosure of certain types of medical errors, those laws do not appear to have filtered down to EMS. Nevertheless, a legal and ethical debate continues over the wisdom of EMS agencies voluntarily disclosing errors to patients or family members. At the […]
Two recently filed lawsuits reflect a growing trend for dissatisfied EMS customers to voice their complaints through the courts when EMS fails to transport and a patient’s condition subsequently worsens. Both incidents—one in Pittsburgh and one in Washington D.C.—occurred during severe snowstorms, indicating that patients will not tolerate any excuse for failure to respond and […]
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