§ 100. Definitions.

For the purpose of this code, the following words and phrases shall have meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section.

A.

Ambulance means any vehicle which is designed and equipped to transport ill or injured persons in a reclining position to or from health care facilities.

B.

Ambulance response time standards means:

For All Jurisdictions Except the Eastern Division Non-beneficiary Jurisdictions:

Priority 1	10 minutes	59 seconds
Priority 2	24 minutes	59 seconds
Priority 3	60 minutes	0 seconds
Priority 4	20 minutes	0 seconds*

 

(* after agreed-upon pickup appointment)

For the Eastern Division Non-beneficiary Jurisdictions:

Priority 1	11 minutes	59 seconds
Priority 2	24 minutes	59 seconds
Priority 3	60 minutes	0 seconds
Priority 4	20 minutes	0 seconds*

 

(* after agreed-upon pickup appointment)

C.

Ambulance service means a person or organization, governmental or private, which operates one (1) or more ambulances as defined herein for purposes of transporting ill or injured patients in a reclining position to or from health care facilities.

D.

Amended and restated trust indenture means the amended and restated trust indenture for the Emergency Medical Services Authority dated March 23, 1990, and any amendments thereto.

E.

Base station physician means a physician licensed to practice medicine in the state of Oklahoma, from whom ambulance and first responder personnel may take medical direction by radio or other remote communications device; and who has been certified by the Regional Medical Director as being knowledgeable of the EMS System's medical protocols, radio procedures and the general operating policies of the EMS System.

F.

Beneficiary member jurisdictions means the City of Tulsa and the City of Oklahoma City.

G.

Eastern division means that portion of the regulated service area which is located east of Stroud.

H.

Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) means the trust established by the City of Tulsa, pursuant to 60 O.S.1981, §§ 176, et seq. , as amended, and whose beneficiaries are, jointly, the City of Tulsa and the City of Oklahoma City, and which is established to provide ambulance services to the cities of Tulsa, Oklahoma City and other jurisdictions within the regulated service area.

I.

Emergency call means a request for ambulance service by or for a patient whose apparent condition, at the time the call is received, presumptively meets the criteria for classification as Priority 1 or Priority 2, when classified in accordance with telephone algorithms and medical priority dispatch protocols approved by the Medical Control Board.

J.

Emergency medical personnel means those persons who participate directly in the performance of one (1) or more emergency medical services, as defined herein.

K.

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) means the following pre-hospital and inter-hospital services:

1.

Access and coordination. The answering and processing of telephone requests from the public for ambulance or first responder services, and including EMS dispatching, emergency and routine; the giving of medical pre-arrival instructions to callers by telephone; but excluding the process of 911 complaint-taking when the caller is immediately transferred to an EMS Control Center;

2.

First responder services. Those emergency services, excluding transportation, which are performed by a first responder agency, certified by the medical director;

3.

Medical transportation. Ambulance services, both emergency and routine, including patient assessment, transportation and medical procedures performed on-scene, en route, during inter-facility transport or at an emergency receiving facility when performed at the request of the receiving physician; and,

4.

On-line medical direction. Instructions given by base station physicians to first responders or ambulance personnel at the scene of an emergency, while en route to a hospital, or during an inter-facility patient transfer.

L.

Emergency Physicians Foundation (EPF) means that administrative agency established jointly by this and other jurisdictions which have approved the EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement, pursuant to 74 O.S.1981, §§ 1001, et seq. , as amended, and have adopted this Uniform Code for Emergency Medical Services.

M.

EMS Control Center or "Control Center" means either of two (2) facilities operated by EMSA, one (1) of which serves as central EMS communications center for the Eastern Division, and the other of which serves as central EMS communications center for the Western Division. EMSA may, at its option, consolidate the operations of the two (2) EMS Control Centers to create a single EMS Control Center to serve the entire regulated service area.

N.

EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement means that certain agreement of same title adopted by the governing body of the beneficiary jurisdictions.

O.

First responder means any person, fire department unit, law enforcement unit or non-transporting rescue unit capable of providing appropriate first responder service, excluding transportation, under the auspices of a Certified First Responder Agency.

P.

Medical Control Board means that body of eleven (11) physicians established jointly by this and other jurisdictions pursuant to the EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement and this code for purposes of providing medical supervision, monitoring and regulation of the Regional EMS System.

Q.

Medical Director or Regional Medical Director means the licensed physician appointed by the Medical Control Board to perform the duties and responsibilities granted and ascribed to the Medical Director herein and in the EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement.

R.

Medical protocol means any diagnosis-specific or problem-oriented written statement of standard procedure, or algorithm, promulgated by the Medical Director and approved by the Medical Control Board as the medically appropriate standard of pre-hospital care for a given clinical condition.

S.

Member jurisdiction means any municipality or EMS District which adopts and enforces this code and which approves the EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement.

T.

Mutual aid agreement means a written agreement between EMSA and a neighboring primary provider of Emergency Medical Service approved by the Medical Director as to its quality of care and medical accountability, whereby the signing parties agree to lend emergency aid to one another subject to conditions and terms specified in the agreement.

U.

Non-beneficiary jurisdictions means jurisdictions that are not beneficiary member jurisdictions as defined herein, including municipalities, counties, EMS districts, school districts, Indian Nations or other legal entities that elect to contract with the Trustees of EMSA in order to be included in the regulated service area.

V.

Operations contract means that contract awarded by EMSA by competitive bid award for provision of ambulance services throughout the regulated service area.

W.

Operations contractor means the person or firm contracted by EMSA pursuant to the operations contract.

X.

Patient means an individual who is ill, sick, injured, wounded or incapacitated, and who is in need of, or is at risk of needing, medical care or assessment during transportation to or from a health care facility, and who is or should be transported in a reclining position, as determined in accordance with applicable provisions of the system standard of care.

Y.

Person means and includes any individual, firm, association, partnership, corporation or other group or combination acting as a unit.

Z.

Presumptive priority classification means the designation by a System Status Controller (SSC) of a request for service as Priority 1, 2, 3 or 4, in accordance with telephone algorithms and medical priority dispatch protocols approved by the Medical Control Board.

AA.

  Priority means the call priority number (i.e., Priority 1, 2, 3 or 4) assigned to every request for service received by an EMS Control Center. Such priorities shall be assigned only by a certified SSC, pursuant to telephone algorithms and priority dispatch protocols established by the Medical Director and approved by the Medical Control Board. Classifications shall be consistent with the following definitions:

Priority 1 Call means a presumptively classified life-threatening emergency call;

Priority 2 Call means a presumptively classified non-life threatening emergency call;

Priority 3 Call means a presumptively classified request for routine patient transport scheduled less than twenty-four (24) hours in advance of the requested time of pickup or an unscheduled, nonemergency request for service; and,

Priority 4 Call means a presumptively classified request for routine patient transport scheduled twenty-four (24) hours or more in advance of the requested time of pickup.

BB.

  Quality assurance fund means the fund account which is established pursuant to the EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement and, concurrently, by adoption of this code, and which is administered by EMSA on behalf of the Medical Control Board, and which shall be used solely to fund the activities and related expenses of the Medical Control Board in carrying out its duties and responsibilities as set forth herein and in the EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement.

CC.

  Regional EMS system means that network of organizations, individuals, facilities and equipment which provides emergency medical services, as defined herein, to jurisdictions within the regulated service area, subject to the system standard of care approved by the Medical Control Board.

DD.

  Regulated service area means the combined area which is contained within the boundaries of the municipalities and EMS Districts which have adopted and agreed to enforce this uniform code for Emergency Medical Services, and which have approved the EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement.

EE.

  Response time—ambulance means the actual elapsed time between receipt by the EMS Control Center of the call and the arrival of a permitted ambulance or mutual aid ambulance (approved by the Medical Director) at the scene of the incident. For scheduled nonemergency (Priority 4) requests, "scheduled time of pick up" shall be substituted for the "time call received" in the response time calculation.

FF.

  Response time—first responder means the actual elapsed time between notification of the first responder agency by the EMS Control Center that a first response unit is needed at a given location, and the arrival of a first response unit at the incident scene.

GG.

  Routine transport call means a request for ambulance service by or for a patient whose apparent condition, at the time the call is received, presumptively meets the criteria for classification as Priority 3 or Priority 4, when classified in accordance with telephone algorithms and medical priority dispatch protocols approved by the Medical Control Board.

HH.

  Special events ambulance standby service means the positioning of an ambulance and crew at the location of a publicly-or privately-sponsored event.

II.

  Sub-area is a section of the eastern division's beneficiary jurisdiction or of the combined beneficiary and non-beneficiary jurisdiction in the western Division drawn so as to divide the service area into three (3) geographical areas for the purpose of equalizing response times within the area.

JJ.

  System standard of care means the written body of standards, policies and protocols governing all clinical aspects of the EMS system, which is approved by the governing bodies of the beneficiary member jurisdictions, and which is developed and periodically updated in accordance with procedures set forth in the EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement. As used in this context, system standard of care is a comprehensive term including:

1.

Input standards including but not limited to personnel certification requirements, in-service training requirements, equipment specifications, on-board inventory requirements and other requirements which the system must fulfill before receipt of a request for service;

2.

Performance standards including but not limited to medical priority dispatch protocols and pre-arrival instructions, medical protocols, standing orders, response time standards, protocols governing authority for on-scene control of patient care and other performance specifications describing how the system should behave upon receipt of a request for service; and,

3.

Outcome standards including but not limited to target survival rates for certain narrowly defined presenting problems or presumptive diagnoses, such as witnessed cardiac arrests involving patients whose medical histories meet defined criteria. Outcome standards are results the system intends to achieve by meeting its input and performance standards.

KK.

  System Status Controller (SSC) means a person certified by the Medical Director as trained and competent to properly employ telephone algorithms, medical priority dispatch protocols and pre-arrival instructions approved by the Medical Control Board, and to operate the EMS Control Center's computer-aided dispatch system in accordance with the system status plan, so as to maintain the best possible ambulance coverage of the regulated service area, given the remaining resources available at any point in time.

LL.

  System status plan means the plan and protocols for staffing, deployment and redeployment of ambulances which are developed and utilized by EMSA's operations contractor, and which specify how many ambulances will be staffed and available within the regulated service area each hour of the day, each day of the week, including the locations of available ambulances (not assigned to calls) within the regulated service area, specified separately for each hour of the day, for each day of the week and every remaining number of ambulances then-available in the system, and including protocols for event-driven redeployment of those remaining ambulances.

MM.

  Western division means that portion of the regulated service area which is located west of Stroud, and which may include the City of Stroud subject to requirements set forth in the EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement.

(Ord. Nos. 17294, 19167; Ord. No. 22019, § 1, 8-20-2009; Ord. No. 22973, § 1, 10-24-2013)