FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 13, 2011
Contact: China Dodley, Public Information Officer (614)-466-2551
New Law Revises the Requirements for Ambulance Staffing and Driver Requirements
It also revises priorities for distributing grant funding, specifies additional titles used by EMS personnel and extends a moratorium on issuing fireworks manufacturer and wholesale licenses.
(COLUMBUS)
–A new law revising the requirements for staffing ambulances takes effect Sept. 23, 2011. The Ohio Fire Chiefs Association spearheaded the legislation [Substitute H.B 128] in an effort to improve driver safety and reduce the number of emergency vehicle–related crashes.
“The Division of EMS’ goal is to educate Ohio’s EMS community regarding the new requirements to ensure that our providers remain in compliance and continue providing the highest level of care to their patients,” said Executive Director of the Division of EMS Jeffrey Leaming. “The revised priorities for grants and the specification of titles for EMS personnel help us move one step closer to the national EMS education standard and program accreditation.” The Board adopted the national accreditation of the state’s paramedic training programs in February 2010, requiring Ohio-accredited paramedic programs be nationally accredited through the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Program by 2018. Grant funding has been added to assist Ohio Paramedic Training Programs that are in the process of obtaining national accreditation.
The bill:
Revises the requirements for staffing ambulances. The new requirements vary, depending on whether the ambulance is traveling to the emergency scene or from the emergency scene and carrying a patient, and whether the emergency medical service is a volunteer organization or is substantially utilizing volunteers. The bill also establishes who may drive ambulances, generally requiring a first responder or EMT, or with proper staffing a certified firefighter. (Ohio Revised Code Section 4765.43 http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/4765.43)
Revises the priorities for distributing grants for emergency medical services, including giving priority to paramedic programs seeking national accreditation.
Allows entities that provide ambulance, emergency medical, and nonemergency patient transport services on behalf of townships to collect and retain any fee that the township may charge for each run involving such services.
Add new National certification level titles to the existing certification titles. Ohio will add Emergency Medical Responder to the First Responder level; EMT will be added to the EMT-Basic level to now mean the Basic level only; Advanced-EMT will be added to the current Intermediate level, and the EMTParamedic level will be simply “Paramedic.”
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B. 128 continued …
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Imposes a general moratorium until December 15, 2015, on the issuance of licenses for fireworks manufacturers, fireworks wholesalers, and the geographic transfer of those licenses.
A complete synopsis of Substitute H.B. 128 can be found online at http://www.lsc.state.oh.us/analyses129/11–
hb128-129.pdf
Frequently Asked Questions have been added to the Division of EMS Web site as an additional resource. Visit
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