§ 23-78.1-5. Emergency medical services providers; triage and transportation of stroke patients. (a) The department of health, division of emergency medical services, and the ambulance service advisory board shall adopt and distribute a nationally recognized standardized assessment tool for stroke. The division of emergency medical services shall post this stroke assessment tool on its website and provide a copy of the assessment tool to each licensed emergency medical services provider no later than January 1, 2010. Each licensed emergency medical services provider must use the stroke-triage assessment tool provided by the department of health, division of emergency medical services;

(b) The department of health, division of emergency medical services, and the ambulance service advisory board shall establish pre-hospital care protocols related to the assessment, treatment, and transport of stroke patients by licensed, emergency medical services providers in this state. Such protocols may include plans for the triage and transport of acute stroke patients to the closest comprehensive or primary stroke center or acute stroke-ready hospital as appropriate and within a specified timeframe of onset of symptoms. The stroke pre-hospital care protocols shall be reviewed on an annual basis;

(c) By June 1 of each year, the department of health, division of emergency medical services, shall send the list of comprehensive and primary stroke centers and acute stroke-ready hospitals to each licensed emergency medical services agency in this state and shall post a list of comprehensive and primary stroke centers and acute stroke-ready hospitals on the division of emergency medical services website. For the purposes of this chapter, the division of emergency medical services may include comprehensive and primary stroke centers and acute stroke-ready hospitals in Massachusetts and Connecticut that are certified by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (the Joint Commission), or are otherwise designated by that state's department of public health as meeting the criteria for comprehensive or primary stroke centers and acute stroke-ready hospitals as established by the brain attack coalition;

(d) Each emergency medical services provider must comply with all sections of this chapter by June 1, 2018.

History of Section. (P.L. 2009, ch. 88, § 1; P.L. 2009, ch. 89, § 1; P.L. 2015, ch. 99, § 1; P.L. 2015, ch. 108, § 1; P.L. 2017, ch. 201, § 1; P.L. 2017, ch. 303, § 1.)