Kansas Health Institute | Information For Policy Makers. Health for Kansans.

TOPEKA — The Kansas Board of Emergency Medical Services has reached a compromise with other medical professionals on a bill that would better define the scope of practice for EMS workers.

The Kansas Medical Society and others had questioned Senate Bill 262 last year. The bill would set guidelines for the procedures that EMS workers could perform depending on their level of education and certification.

The chief complaint then about the bill was that the Board of EMS would spell out the procedures and duties in subsequent regulations approved by the board, instead of them being spelled out in state statutes.

A compromise was reached and a new version of the bill would define broad parameters in statute that would then be further detailed in the board’s regulations.

For instance, according to the new bill, an emergency medical responder would, by law, be allowed to stabilize a patient. The regulations would provide more guidance on patient stabilization.

Dan Morin, a spokesman for the medical society, said the new language more closely resembled laws that define what physicians, nurses and other medical professional may and may not do.

Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, chairwoman of the House Health and Human Services Committee, thanked the groups for coming back with a compromise instead of asking the committee to draft a new bill.

“I think we have a much better product,” she said.

The bill represents a multi-year effort to better define the roles of EMS workers.

An oft-cited concern involves the authority of local medical directors to write orders for EMT’s that can be above and beyond the EMT’s training.

The bill would correct that, said Robert Waller, the EMS board’s executive director, by making clear in state law that a volunteer EMT could not perform the same duties as a full paramedic.

If local medical directors want EMTs in their service to perform more duties, he said, the EMTs would need more training first.

The bill also could help address a growing concern about the shortage of EMS workers. In Kansas, many small, rural services are staffed by volunteers.

Chad Pore, director of Kiowa County EMS in Greensburg, said new provisions for advanced EMT’s would allow his service to hire more mid-level EMS workers instead of paramedics who command higher salaries than the department can afford.

“I can train five advanced EMT’s for the price of one paramedic,” he said. “This would be more beneficial to us because we’ll be able to provide a higher level of care on a daily basis.”