Action | Amend current regulations to include new regulations as a result of legislative changes and changes in the practice of EMS. |
Stage | Proposed |
Comment Period | Ended on 3/19/2010 |
Acute MI represents a life-threatening disease, similar in early death rates to that of trauma and stroke, that is best managed by early revascularization. This can be performed at many, but not all hospitals. If a patient with acute MI can be identified by EMS, as increasingly happens by more widespread use of pre-hospital ECGs, they should be taken to the hospital that can provide the best care, not the one that happens to be the closest.
I believe the language to the regulation should be changed so that acute MI patients are included, and should read "an EMS agency shall follow specialty care hospital triage plans for trauma, stroke, STEMI, and others as recognized by OEMS..."