Is California EMS oversight really this messed up?

[brentoli]

EMT reforms go to governor

By Andrew McIntosh - amcintosh@sacbee.com

Published 12:17 pm PDT Thursday, September 4, 2008

For the second time in two years, state legislators have passed legislation to require California's emergency medical technicians to undergo mandatory criminal background checks.

In 2007, a similar bill was zapped by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who disliked last-minute changes that would have kept secret details about rescuer misconduct.

Now, the governor is ready to sign, an aide said Wednesday, but only after the budget passes.

Schwarzenegger's staff spent months prodding leaders in California's emergency medical services world to modernize their patchwork licensing and certification system, outlined in a 2007 Bee investigation.

Bruce Lee, an emergency medical administrator from Santa Clara County and vice chairman of the state Emergency Medical Services Commission, said the bill should fix a system many considered broken.

Assembly Bill 2917, introduced by Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, D-Newark, was passed Saturday. It also requires that EMTs be certified in the county where they work and calls for the creation of a state-run central EMT registry.

The local certification requirement aims to stop rescuers with spotty employment or criminal records from shopping for certification in counties with no background checks - a problem The Bee also uncovered.

The registry will allow officials to track EMTs statewide and, after a disaster, to identify rescuers in areas where help is needed. EMT fees will be raised to pay for it .

Torrico said the state should no longer tolerate the lack of statewide standards, background checks and a registry.

"There have to be standards for people operating our ambulances and we have to review their history more closely given the reports of criminal history and unqualified EMTs who fell through the cracks," Torrico said.

Dr. Steve Tharratt, the director of the state's Emergency Medical Services Authority, was pleased that various parties involved reached a consensus after months of work.

"What we all want is quality emergency care and the public protected," he said. "Disciplinary cases should be handled the same, whether you're in Sacramento or San Diego."

The bill is backed by the ambulance industry, firefighter unions, fire chiefs, and emergency doctors and county emergency medical administrators. A joined bill, SB 997, also gives firefighters two new seats on the 18-member Emergency Medical Services Commission.

Read The Bee's original investigation into EMT misconduct and related coverage: www.sacbee.com/paramedics

Anthony, or any other Califoininite, is your state really messed up as this implies? You have a county by county certification authority? What kind of impact will this have on EMT's in your state? I thought all states had a statewide registry. Has anyone here got on, or known someone to get on, a service with out a full background check?

[JPINFV]

Yes, it really is a county by county certification process and a certification in one county is good throughout the state. The problem that the Bee found was that, while almost all counties require a background check, a couple didn't. This meant that there were people who were driving 3-4+ hours to go to a non-background check county to get a cert. I know that at least Orange County got around this by requiring a second license to work on an ambulance besides the EMT-B certification. I'm going to assume that the required background check is "Livescan," (Livescan uses an electronic fingerprint machine and is available at almost all police stations as well as at private locations) so I'm going to assume that there's going to be very little impact from this new law since most counties already require a background check and the infrastructure is already in place for people to obtain a background check.