Emergency medical services.

Existing law, the Emergency Medical Services System and the Prehospital Emergency Medical Care Personnel Act, governs local emergency medical services (EMS) systems. The existing act establishes the Emergency Medical Services Authority (authority) , which is responsible for the coordination and integration of all emergency medical services. Existing law authorizes each county to develop an emergency medical services program and requires a county that does so to designate a local EMS agency (LEMSA) . Existing law requires the authority to develop planning and implementation guidelines for emergency medical services systems that address specified components, including the assessment of hospital and critical care centers and data collection and evaluation. This bill would require these guidelines to include a list of standardized terminology for a LEMSA to use when granting exemptions for 911 response times, as specified. Existing law requires the authority to develop and adopt, as specified, a statewide standard methodology for the calculation and reporting by a LEMSA of ambulance patient offload time. This bill would require the authority to develop an audit tool to improve the accuracy of transfer of care data with validation from hospitals and LEMSAs. Existing law authorizes a LEMSA to adopt policies and procedures for calculating and reporting ambulance patient offload times and requires a LEMSA to annually submit its emergency medical services plan for the EMS area to the authority, according to EMS Systems, Standards, and Guidelines established by the authority. This bill would make this authorization mandatory. The bill would require a LEMSA to include its annual budget with its annual emergency medical services plan submission. The bill would also require LEMSAs and the authority to make the plans accessible on the LEMSA's and the authority's internet websites within 30 days of approval by the authority. The bill would require LEMSAs, to the extent they have established 911 response times for EMS providers, to include a list of exemptions from meeting 911 response times granted in the previous calendar year, if any, with their annual emergency medical services plan submission.