Today's Law As Amended


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AB-1229 Advisory task force: ambulance services.(2021-2022)



As Amends the Law Today


SECTION 1.

 Section 1797.1201 is added to the Health and Safety Code, immediately following Section 1797.120, to read:

1797.1201.
 (a) The director shall do both of the following:
(1) Convene the advisory task force, as established by this section, within 30 days of the effective date of the act adding this section, and thereafter, convene the advisory task force quarterly.
(2) Recommend a project plan for the advisory task force that includes, at a minimum, an evaluation of extending and adopting local EMS directives that were designed to alleviate the ambulance patient offload delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and an evaluation of adopting technologies that use available data to provide more visibility into hospital capacity to allow EMS systems to better manage resources and improve response times.
(b) The director shall appoint the membership of the advisory task force, which shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:
(1) Local EMS agency administrator from an urban area.
(2) Local EMS agency administrator from a rural area.
(3) Local EMS agency medical director from an urban area.
(4) Local EMS agency medical director from a rural area.
(5) Representative of rank-and-file EMS personnel.
(6) Fire department medical director from an urban area.
(7) Fire department medical director from a rural area.
(8) Representative from a fire department that provides advanced life support in an urban area.
(9) Representative from a fire department that provides advanced life support in a rural area.
(10) Representative from a private advanced life support provider from an urban area.
(11) Representative from a private advanced life support provider from a rural area.
(c) The director shall transmit the evaluations conducted by the advisory task force to the authority in a manner that allows for their timely inclusion in the reports to the commission prepared pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 1797.123.
(d) On or before December 1, 2022, the director shall submit a report to the Assembly Committee on Emergency Management, the Assembly Committee on Health, the Senate Committee on Health, and the Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management on the evaluations of the task force.

SEC. 2.

 Section 1797.123 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:

1797.123.
 (a) Upon receipt of data reported by a local EMS agency to the authority pursuant to Section 1797.228, the authority shall calculate ambulance patient offload time by local EMS agency jurisdiction and by each facility in a local EMS agency jurisdiction.
(b) The authority shall report twice per year to the Commission on Emergency Medical Services the ambulance patient offload time by local EMS agency jurisdiction and by each facility in a local EMS agency jurisdiction. The authority shall include the evaluations of the advisory task force as transmitted by the director pursuant to Section 1797.1201. 
(c) On or before December 1, 2020, the authority, in collaboration with local EMS agencies, shall submit a report to the Legislature on ambulance patient offload time and recommendations to reduce or eliminate ambulance patient offload time. The report shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
SEC. 3.
 This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the California Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to address the excessive delays being experienced by local emergency medical service providers as a result of the ongoing pandemic and the threat of catastrophic wildfires, earthquakes, floods, and other hazards, it is necessary for this act to take immediate effect.