Emergency medical services: behavioral health facilities and sobering centers.

Existing law, the Emergency Medical Services System and the Prehospital Emergency Medical Care Personnel Act, establishes the Emergency Medical Services Authority, which is responsible for the coordination and integration of all state agencies concerning emergency medical services. Among other duties, the authority is required to develop planning and implementation guidelines for emergency medical services systems, provide technical assistance to existing agencies, counties, and cities for the purpose of developing the components of emergency medical services systems, and receive plans for the implementation of emergency medical services and trauma care systems from local EMS agencies. The act also authorizes each county to develop an emergency medical services program and requires local EMS agencies to plan, implement, and evaluate an emergency medical services system. Existing law requires local EMS agencies to be responsible for the implementation of advanced life support systems, limited advanced life support systems, and for the monitoring of specified training programs for emergency personnel. Existing law defines advanced life support as special services designed to provide definitive prehospital emergency medical care, as specified, at the scene of an emergency, during transport to an acute care hospital, during interfacility transfer, and while in the emergency department of an acute care hospital until responsibility is assumed by that hospital. Existing law makes it a crime to violate the act, or the rules or regulations adopted under the act. This bill would authorize a local emergency medical services agency to submit, as part of its emergency medical services plan, a plan to transport specified patients who meet triage criteria to a behavioral health facility or a sobering center, as defined. The bill would make conforming changes to the definition of advanced life support to include prehospital emergency care provided during transport to a behavioral health facility or a sobering center. The bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county to designate, and contract with, a sobering center to receive patients, and would establish standards that apply to sobering centers, as specified. This bill would also require the authority to adopt guidelines for the triage criteria and assessment procedures by July 1, 2020, and would require the authority to annually analyze the administration of the local plans and to issue certain reports, as specified. By expanding an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.