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Tue Apr 11 23:37:45 BST 2006

Howdy:

Our current training (in California) is that there are three options
for physicians-on-scene:

1. The physician-on-scene may, upon producing a copy of their license
and speaking directly to our base physician, opt to take over full
medical responsibility for the patient, and must then accompany the
patient to the receiving hospital. We become, in this case, assistants
to the physician, and are expected to act in accordance with our scope
of practice /and our training/: in other words, we are given full
latitude to refuse orders that are medically contraindicated or
dangerous to the patient.

2. The physician-on-scene may assist us: we retain primary medical
responsibility for the patient, and the physician becomes a "trained
set of hands" commensurate with their training in emergency medicine.

3. The physician-on-scene may elect to "do nothing": they don't need
to show us identification, and they are for all intents and purposes
treated as an untrained bystander.

My $0.02.

Ashton

On 4/11/06, Ben Reynolds <aneurysm_42 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> He may not be able to order the paramedics to intubate
> (or do anything for that matter) but he certainly
> could have taken medical custody of her from the
> paramedics if he saw it fit.

[trimmed]

List Archives

For your convenience, find the Trauma List Archive Below

In regards to EMS intubation issues