BILL NUMBER: AB 1223	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  JUNE 30, 2015
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MAY 14, 2015
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MAY 5, 2015
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 14, 2015

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member O'Donnell

                        FEBRUARY 27, 2015

   An act to add Sections 1797.120 and 1797.225 to the Health and
Safety Code, relating to emergency medical services.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1223, as amended, O'Donnell. Emergency medical services:
ambulance transportation.
   Existing law establishes the Emergency Medical Services Authority,
and requires it to adopt regulations that further the purpose of
establishing a statewide system for emergency medical services.
Existing law, the Emergency Medical Services System and the
Prehospital Emergency Medical Care Personnel Act, authorizes each
county to develop an emergency medical services program. The act
further authorizes a local emergency medical services (EMS) agency to
develop and submit a plan to the Emergency Medical Services
Authority for an emergency medical services system, and requires the
local EMS agency, using state minimum standards, to establish
policies and procedures to assure medical control of the emergency
medical services system that may require basic life support emergency
medical transportation services to meet any medical control
requirements, including dispatch, patient destination policies,
patient care guidelines, and quality assurance requirements.
   This bill would authorize a local EMS agency to adopt policies and
procedures relating to ambulance patient offload time, as defined.
The bill would require the authority to develop a statewide standard
methodology for the calculation and reporting by a local EMS agency
of ambulance patient offload time.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 1797.120 is added to the Health and Safety
Code, to read:
   1797.120.  (a) The authority shall develop, using input from
stakeholders, including, but not limited to, hospitals, local EMS
agencies, and public and private EMS providers, and, after approval
by the commission pursuant to Section 1799.50, adopt a statewide
standard methodology for the calculation and reporting by a local EMS
agency of ambulance patient offload time.
   (b) For the purposes of this section, "ambulance patient offload
time" is defined as the interval between the arrival of an ambulance
patient  transported by a local EMS agency  at an
emergency department and the time that the  emergency
department assumes responsibility for care of the patient following
the transfer of the patient to a stretcher utilized by the emergency
department.  patient is transferred to an emergency
department gurney, bed, chair, or other acceptable location and the
emergency department assumes responsibility for care of the patient.

  SEC. 2.  Section 1797.225 is added to the Health and Safety Code,
to read:
   1797.225.  (a) A local EMS agency may adopt policies and
procedures for calculating and reporting ambulance patient offload
time, as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 1797.120.
   (b) A local EMS agency that adopts policies and procedures for
calculating and reporting ambulance patient offload time pursuant to
subdivision (a) shall do all of the following:
   (1) Use the statewide standard methodology for calculating and
reporting ambulance patient offload time developed by the authority
pursuant to Section 1797.120.
   (2) Establish criteria for the reporting of, and quality assurance
followup for, a  "never event,"   nonstandard
patient offload time,  as defined in subdivision (c).
   (c)  (1)    For the purposes of this section, a
 "never event" occurs when   "nonstandard
patient offload time" means that  the ambulance patient offload
time for a patient exceeds a period of time designated in the
criteria established by the local EMS agency pursuant to paragraph
(2) of subdivision (b). 
   (2) "Nonstandard patient offload time" does not include instances
in which the ambulance patient offload time exceeds the period set by
the local EMS agency due to acts of God, natural disasters, or
manmade disasters.