36-2205. Permitted treatment and medication; certification requirement; protocols

A. The director, in consultation with the medical director of the emergency medical services and trauma system, the emergency medical services council and the medical direction commission, shall establish protocols, which may include training criteria, governing the medical treatments, procedures, medications and techniques that may be administered or performed by each classification of emergency medical care technician. These protocols shall consider the differences in treatments and procedures for regional, urban, rural and wilderness areas and shall require that emergency medical care technicians authorized to perform advanced life support procedures render these treatments, procedures, medications or techniques only under the direction of a physician.

B. The protocols adopted by the director pursuant to this section are exempt from title 41, chapter 6.

C. Notwithstanding subsection B of this section, a person may petition the director, pursuant to section 41-1033, to amend a protocol adopted by the director.

D. In consultation with the medical director of the emergency medical services and trauma system, the emergency medical services council and the medical direction commission, the director shall establish protocols for emergency medical providers to refer and advise a patient or transport a patient by the most appropriate means to the most appropriate provider of medical services based on the patient's condition. The protocols shall consider the differences in treatments and procedures for regional, urban, rural and wilderness areas and shall require that emergency medical care technicians authorized to perform advanced life support procedures render these treatments, procedures, medications or techniques only under the direction of a physician.

E. The protocols established pursuant to subsection D of this section shall include triage and treatment protocols that allow all classifications of emergency medical care technicians responding to a person who has accessed 911, or a similar public dispatch number, for a condition that does not pose an immediate threat to life or limb to refer and advise a patient or transport a patient to the most appropriate health care institution, as defined in section 36-401, based on the patient's condition, taking into consideration factors including patient choice, the patient's health care provider, specialized health care facilities and local protocols.