(A) Not later than two years after November 3, 2000, the state board of emergency medical, fire, and transportation services shall develop and distribute guidelines for the care of trauma victims by emergency medical service personnel and for the conduct of peer review and quality assurance programs by emergency medical service organizations. The guidelines shall be consistent with the state trauma triage protocols adopted in rules under sections 4765.11 and 4765.40 of the Revised Code and shall place emphasis on the special needs of pediatric and geriatric trauma victims. In developing the guidelines, the board shall consult with entities with interests in trauma and emergency medical services and shall consider any relevant guidelines adopted by national organizations, including the American college of surgeons, American college of emergency physicians, and American academy of pediatrics. The board shall distribute the guidelines, and amendments to the guidelines, to each emergency medical service organization, regional director, regional physician advisory board, certified emergency medical service instructor, and person who regularly provides medical direction to emergency medical service personnel in this state.

Terms Used In Ohio Code 4765.12

  • Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
  • Emergency medical service: includes such services performed before or during any transport of a patient, including transports between hospitals and transports to and from helicopters. See Ohio Code 4765.01
  • Emergency medical service organization: means a public or private organization using first responders, EMTs-basic, EMTs-I, or paramedics, or a combination of first responders, EMTs-basic, EMTs-I, and paramedics, to provide emergency medical services. See Ohio Code 4765.01
  • Emergency medical service personnel: means first responders, emergency medical technicians-basic, emergency medical technicians-intermediate, emergency medical technicians-paramedic, and persons who provide medical direction to such persons. See Ohio Code 4765.01
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Geriatric: means involving a patient who is at least seventy years old or exhibits significant anatomical or physiological characteristics associated with advanced aging. See Ohio Code 4765.01
  • Pediatric: means involving a patient who is less than sixteen years of age. See Ohio Code 4765.01
  • Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
  • Physician: means an individual who holds a current, valid license issued under Chapter 4731 of the Revised Code authorizing the practice of medicine and surgery or osteopathic medicine and surgery. See Ohio Code 4765.01
  • state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
  • Trauma care: means the assessment, diagnosis, transportation, treatment, or rehabilitation of a trauma victim by emergency medical service personnel or by a physician, nurse, physician assistant, respiratory therapist, physical therapist, chiropractor, occupational therapist, speech-language pathologist, audiologist, or psychologist licensed to practice as such in this state or another jurisdiction. See Ohio Code 4765.01

(B) Not later than three years after November 3, 2000, each emergency medical service organization in this state shall implement ongoing peer review and quality assurance programs designed to improve the availability and quality of the emergency medical services it provides. The form and content of the programs shall be determined by each emergency medical service organization. In implementing the programs, each emergency medical service organization shall consider how to improve its ability to provide effective trauma care, particularly for pediatric and geriatric trauma victims, and shall take into account the trauma care guidelines developed by the state board of emergency medical, fire, and transportation services under this section.

Information generated solely for use in a peer review or quality assurance program conducted on behalf of an emergency medical service organization is not a public record under section 149.43 of the Revised Code. Such information, and any discussion conducted in the course of a peer review or quality assurance program conducted on behalf of an emergency medical service organization, is not subject to discovery in a civil action and shall not be introduced into evidence in a civil action against the emergency medical service organization on whose behalf the information was generated or the discussion occurred.

No emergency medical service organization on whose behalf a peer review or quality assurance program is conducted, and no person who conducts such a program, because of performing such functions, shall be liable in a civil action for betrayal of professional confidence or otherwise in the absence of willful or wanton misconduct.

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