The triage, treatment, and transport emergency medical service practitioners provide can often be the difference between life and death for patients with a medical emergency. The unique nature of emergency medical services is unlike other health care services governed by the Controlled Substances Act. There is a routinely encountered clinical need for controlled substance medications in the practice of EMS medicine, ranging from the administration of pain narcotics to anti-seizure medications.
Emergency medical technicians and paramedics need to administer these lifesaving drugs as quickly as they are able to reach and assess the patient, and any delay wastes valuable time in the provision of care. Established practice allows emergency medical service practitioners to administer and deliver these controlled substances under the oversight of physicians, primarily through directional guidelines written by physicians, commonly known as standing orders.
Laws and regulations have not kept up with the evolution of modern medicine, however, and in a recent review of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the Department of Justice determined that legislation is needed to codify “standing orders.” Absent of Congressional action, patients may lose access to those life-saving medications in emergency situations and established practice will be disrupted because laws have not kept up with the evolution of medicine.
To remedy this dilemma, Congressman Hudson has authored H.R. 4365, the Protecting Patient Access to Emergency Medications Act. This legislation will clarify that the current practice of physician medical directors overseeing care provided by paramedics and other emergency medical service practitioners via “standing orders” is statutorily allowed and protected. The use of “standing orders” is necessary so that physician medical directors can establish these pre-set protocols which emergency medical service practitioners follow in delivering emergency medical care. In the absence of standing orders, patients would not have access to the time-sensitive and potentially life-saving interventions they so desperately need.
Darla Long
Alton, Illinois