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EMS Rules and Statutes

Contact the Florida Department of Health

Draft Administrative Rules 

64J-1.002 DRAFT Basic Life Support Service License
64J-1.024 DRAFT Disciplinary Guidelines
64J-1.024 August 24, 2022 Workshop
64J-1.024 August 24, 2022 Rules Workshop Agenda

Please contact Mike Hall, EMS Section Administrator at EMS@flhealth.gov for more information about the current draft administrative rules

Go to "Online Sunshine" to access all Florida Statutes.

 

Additional resources for EMS related Florida Statutes and Florida Administrative Code
  • Prohibition of Fees for First Responders
  • Motor Vehicle Traffic Laws
  • Vessel Laws (Boats and Ships)
  • E911 plan, EMS communication and public safety telecommunicator AED contact
  • Public Health: Allergy Treatment, advisories, opioid overdose
  • Public Health: Maternal and Infant Health Care (Safe Place), SIDS, Minors
  • Public Health: HIV Testing, Infectious disease, significant exposures
  • Trauma, Trauma Transport
  • Stroke, and Stroke Assessment tool, Stroke Centers
  • Access to Care, Abuse Reporting, Baker Act, Marchman Act
  • Poison Control Centers
  • Personnel Safety, Firearms, and Workers Compensation: Law, Fire, and Emergency medical services
  • Good Samaritan, Cardiac Arrest Survival Act (AED), Emergency Medical Services Dispatch Act (AED Access)
  • Medical Protocols
  • Impaired Practitioner Program
  • Regulation for Drugs, Devices
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Link: F.S. 125.01045 Prohibition of Fees for First Responders
F.S. 125.01045 A county may not impose a fee or seek reimbursement for any costs or expenses that may be incurred for services provided by a first responder, including costs or expenses related to personnel, supplies, motor vehicles, or equipment in response to a motor vehicle accident, except for costs to contain or clean up hazardous materials in quantities reportable to the Florida State Warning Point at the Division of Emergency Management, and costs for transportation and treatment provided by ambulance services licensed pursuant to s. 401.23(4) and (5).
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Link: 316.072 Obedience to and effect of traffic laws
F.S. 316.072 Includes obedience to Police, Fire and EMS vehicles, includes authorized emergency vehicles.

Link: F.S. 316.0271 Yellow DOT Program
The governing body of a county may create a yellow dot critical motorist medical information program to facilitate the provision of emergency medical care to program participants by emergency medical responders by making critical medical information readily available to responders in the event of a motor vehicle accident or a medical emergency involving a participant’s vehicle.

Link: F.S. 316.305 Wireless communications Devices
This section may be cited as the "Florida Ban on Texting While Driving Law."

Link: F.S. 316.1932 Test for Alcohol, chemical substances, or controlled substances
Paramedics conducting Blood Draws for Law Enforcement

Link: F.S. 316.1933 Blood test for impairment or intoxication in cases of death or serious bodily injury
Only a physician, certified paramedic, registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, other personnel authorized by a hospital to draw blood, or duly licensed clinical laboratory director, supervisor, technologist, or technician, acting at the request of a law enforcement officer, may withdraw blood for the purpose of determining the alcoholic content thereof or the presence of chemical substances or controlled substances therein. However, the failure of a law enforcement officer to request the withdrawal of blood shall not affect the admissibility of a test of blood withdrawn for medical purposes.
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Link: F.S. 327.352 Vessel Safety; Test for Alcohol, chemical substances, or controlled substances
Paramedics conducting Blood Draws for Law Enforcement

Link F.S. 327.353 Blood test for impairment or intoxication in cases of death or serious bodily injury
Only a physician, certified paramedic, registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, other personnel authorized by a hospital to draw blood, or duly licensed clinical laboratory director, supervisor, technologist, or technician, acting at the request of a law enforcement officer, may withdraw blood for the purpose of determining the alcoholic content thereof or the presence of chemical substances or controlled substances therein. However, the failure of a law enforcement officer to request the withdrawal of blood shall not affect the admissibility of a test of blood withdrawn for medical purposes.
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Link: F.S. 365.171 Emergency communications number E911 State Plan
It is the intent of the Legislature that the communications number "911" be the designated emergency communications number. A public safety agency may not advertise or otherwise promote the use of any communications number for emergency response services other than "911." It is further the intent of the Legislature to implement and continually update a cohesive statewide emergency communications number "E911" plan for enhanced 911 services which will provide citizens with rapid direct access to public safety agencies by accessing "911" with the objective of reducing the response time to situations requiring law enforcement, fire, medical, rescue, and other emergency services.

Link: F.S. 365.171 (12)(a) AED contact by public safety telecommunicator
Notwithstanding paragraph (a), a 911 public safety telecommunicator, as defined in s.401.465, may contact any private person or entity that owns an automated external defibrillator who has notified the local emergency medical services medical director or public safety answering point of such ownership if a confirmed coronary emergency call is taking place and the location of the coronary emergency is within a reasonable distance from the location of the defibrillator, and may provide the location of the coronary emergency to that person or entity.

Link F.S. 395.1031 EMS communications (Medcomm)
Each licensed hospital with an emergency department must be capable of communicating by two-way radio with all ground-based basic life support service vehicles and advanced life support service vehicles that operate within the hospital’s service area under a state permit and with all rotorcraft air ambulances that operate under a state permit.
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Link: F.S.  381.88 Emergency Allergy Treatment Act
The purpose of this section is to provide for the certification of persons who administer lifesaving treatment to persons who have severe allergic reactions when a physician is not immediately available.

Link F.S. 381.00315 Pubic health advisories; public health emergencies
Notwithstanding s. 456.036, temporarily reactivating the inactive license of the following health care practitioners, when such practitioners are needed to respond to the public health emergency.

Link F.S. 381.887 Emergency treatment of suspected opioid overdose
The purpose of this section is to provide for the prescription of an emergency opioid antagonist to patients and caregivers and to encourage the prescription of emergency opioid antagonists by authorized health care practitioners.
Maternal and Infant Health Care

Link: F.S. 383.50 Treatment of surrendered newborn infant
Each emergency medical services station or fire station staffed with full-time firefighters, emergency medical technicians, or paramedics shall accept any newborn infant left with a firefighter, emergency medical technician, or paramedic.

Link: F.S. 383.51 Confidentiality of F.S. 383.50 (above)
The identity of a parent who leaves a newborn infant at a hospital, emergency medical services station, or fire station in accordance with s. 383.50 is confidential and exempt from s. 119.07(1) and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution.

Link: F.S. 383.3362 Sudden Unexpected Infant Death, Duties, Training
The Legislature further recognizes that first responders to emergency calls relating to such a death need access to special training to better enable them to recognize that such deaths may result from natural and accidental causes or may be caused by criminal acts and to appropriately interact with the deceased infant’s parents or caretakers.

Link: F.S. 743.064 Emergency care or treatment of minors
The absence of parental consent notwithstanding, a physician licensed under chapter 458 or an osteopathic physician licensed under chapter 459 may render emergency medical care or treatment to any minor who has been injured in an accident or who is suffering from an acute illness, disease, or condition if, within a reasonable degree of medical certainty, delay in initiation or provision of emergency medical care or treatment would endanger the health or physical well-being of the minor, and provided such emergency medical care or treatment is administered in a hospital licensed by the state under chapter 395 or in a college health service. Emergency medical care or treatment may also be rendered in the prehospital setting by paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and other emergency medical services personnel, provided such care is rendered consistent with the provisions of chapter 401.
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Link F.S. 381.004 HIV testing (significant exposure)
"Significant exposure" means:
  1. Exposure to blood or body fluids through needlestick, instruments, or sharps;
  2. Exposure of mucous membranes to visible blood or body fluids to which universal precautions apply according to the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including, without limitations, the following body fluids:
Link F.S. 384.29 Confidentiality of sexually transmitted disease
All information and records held by the department or its authorized representatives relating to known or suspected cases of sexually transmissible diseases are strictly confidential and exempt from the provisions of s. 119.07(1).

Link F.S. 384.287 Sexually transmitted disease (exposure testing)
An officer as defined in s. 943.10(14); support personnel as defined in s. 943.10(11) who are employed by the Department of Law Enforcement, including, but not limited to, any crime scene analyst, forensic technologist, or crime lab analyst; firefighter as defined in s. 633.102; or ambulance driver, paramedic, or emergency medical technician as defined in s. 401.23, acting within the scope of employment, who comes into contact with a person in such a way that significant exposure, as defined in s. 381.004, has occurred may request that the person be screened for a sexually transmissible disease that can be transmitted through a significant exposure.

Link: F.S. 395.1025 Infectious disease, notification
Notwithstanding the provisions in s. 381.004, if, while treating or transporting an ill or injured patient to a licensed facility, an emergency medical technician, paramedic, or other person comes into direct contact with the patient who is subsequently diagnosed as having an infectious disease, it shall be the duty of the licensed facility receiving the patient to notify the emergency medical technician, paramedic, or his or her emergency medical transportation service employer, or other person of the individual’s exposure to the patient within 48 hours, or sooner, of confirmation of the patient’s diagnosis and to advise him or her of the appropriate treatment, if any.
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Link F.S. 395.50 Quality assurance activities of trauma centers
A hospital or an emergency medical services provider shall disclose records and reports of patient care, transport, and treatment to an entity, and a hospital or an emergency medical services provider may disclose to an entity and to one another its own quality assurance proceedings, records, or reports.

Link F.S. 395.4045 EMS; trauma transport protocols, transport of trauma alert victims
Each emergency medical services provider licensed under chapter 401 shall transport trauma alert victims to hospitals approved as trauma centers, except as may be provided for either in the department-approved trauma transport protocol of the trauma agency for the geographical area in which the emergency medical services licensee provides services or, if no such department-approved trauma transport protocol is in effect, as provided for in a department-approved provider's trauma transport protocol.

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Link F.S. 395.3038 State listed stroke centers
The agency shall make available on its website and to the department a list of the name and address of each hospital that meets the criteria for an acute stroke ready center, a primary stroke center, or a comprehensive stroke center. The list of stroke centers must include only those hospitals that attest in an affidavit submitted to the agency that the hospital meets the named criteria, or those hospitals that attest in an affidavit submitted to the agency that the hospital is certified as an acute stroke ready center, a primary stroke center, or a comprehensive stroke center by a nationally recognized accrediting organization.

Stroke Centers

Link F.S. 395.3041 EMS; triage, transport of stroke victims
Each emergency medical services provider licensed under chapter 401 must comply with all sections of this act.

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Link: F.S. 395.1041 Access to emergency services and care
Emergency medical services providers may not condition the prehospital transport of any person in need of emergency services and care on the person’s ability to pay. Nor may emergency medical services providers condition a transfer on the person’s ability to pay when the transfer is made necessary because the patient is in immediate need of treatment for an emergency medical condition for which the hospital lacks service capability or when the hospital is at service capacity.

Link F.S. 415.091 Mandatory reporting of abuse, neglect, or exploitation
Physician, osteopathic physician, medical examiner, chiropractic physician, nurse, paramedic, emergency medical technician, or hospital personnel engaged in the admission, examination, care, or treatment of vulnerable adults; who knows, or has reasonable cause to suspect, that a vulnerable adult has been or is being abused, neglected, or exploited shall immediately report such knowledge or suspicion to the central abuse hotline.

Link: F.S. 394.463 Involuntary examination Baker Act (mental Illness)
A person may be taken to a receiving facility for involuntary examination if there is reason to believe that the person has a mental illness and because of his or her mental illness.

Link: F.S. 397.675 Involuntary examination Marchman Act (Substance)
A person meets the criteria for involuntary admission if there is good faith reason to believe that the person is substance abuse impaired or has a co-occurring mental health disorder and, because of such impairment or disorder.
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Link: F.S. 395.1027 Regional poison control centers
There shall be created three certified regional poison control centers, one each in the north, central, and southern regions of the state.
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Link: F.S. 784.07 Assault or battery of EMS, firefighter, or law;
Assault or battery of EMS, Fire, or Law enforcement officer.

Link: F.S. 790.338 Medical privacy concerning firearms
Any emergency medical technician or paramedic acting under the supervision of an emergency medical services medical director under chapter 401 may make an inquiry concerning the possession or presence of a firearm if he or she, in good faith, believes that information regarding the possession of a firearm by the patient or the presence of a firearm in the home or domicile of a patient or a patient’s family member is necessary to treat a patient during the course and scope of a medical emergency or that the presence or possession of a firearm would pose an imminent danger or threat to the patient or others.

Link: F.S. 440.091 Law enforcement officer, firefighter, emergency medical technician, or paramedic; when acting within the course of employment.
Specific Worker’s compensation when acting outside of jurisdiction and within the scope and state.
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Link: F.S. 768.13 Good Samaritan Act
Any person, including those licensed to practice medicine, who gratuitously and in good faith renders emergency care or treatment either in direct response to emergency situations related to and arising out of a public health emergency declared pursuant to s. 381.00315, a state of emergency which has been declared pursuant to s. 252.36 or at the scene of an emergency outside of a hospital, doctor's office, or other place having proper medical equipment, without objection of the injured victim or victims thereof, shall not be held liable for any civil damages as a result of such care or treatment or as a result of any act or failure to act in providing or arranging further medical treatment where the person acts as an ordinary reasonably prudent person would have acted under the same or similar circumstances.

Link: F.S. 768.1325 Cardiac Arrest Survival Act (AED use)
Any person who uses or attempts to use an automated external defibrillator device on a victim of a perceived medical emergency, without objection of the victim of the perceived medical emergency, is immune from civil liability for any harm resulting from the use or attempted use of such device.

Link: F.S.768.1335 Emergency Medical Services Dispatch Act (EMD's)
Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, and unless otherwise immune under s. 768.28, any emergency medical dispatcher or the emergency medical dispatch agency, its agents, or its employees who utilize emergency medical dispatch protocols are presumed not to have acted negligently regarding any injuries or damages resulting from the use of emergency medical dispatch protocols, if the emergency medical dispatcher or the emergency medical dispatch agency, its agents, or its employees:
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Link: F.S. 458.348 Formal supervisory relationships, standing orders, and established protocolsPhysicians reporting to respective board
When a physician enters into a formal supervisory relationship or standing orders with an emergency medical technician or paramedic licensed pursuant to s. 401.27, which relationship or orders contemplate the performance of medical acts;

Link: F.S. 459.025 Formal supervisory relationships, standing orders, and established protocols
Osteopathic physician reporting to respective board
When an osteopathic physician enters into a formal supervisory relationship or standing orders with an emergency medical technician or paramedic licensed pursuant to s. 401.27, which relationship or orders contemplate the performance of medical acts.
Link: F.S. 456.076 Impaired Practitioner programs
The program, as envisioned in the statute, is designed to assist health care practitioners who are impaired as a result of the misuse or abuse of alcohol or drugs, or of a mental or physical condition, which could affect the ability to practice with skill and safety.
F.S. Chapter 499 Florida Drug and Cosmetic Act
     (a) Safeguard the public health and promote the public welfare by protecting the public from injury by product use and by merchandising deceit involving drugs, devices, and cosmetics.
     (b) Provide uniform legislation to be administered so far as practicable in conformity with the provisions of, and regulations issued under the authority of, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and that portion of the Federal Trade Commission Act which expressly prohibits the false advertisement of drugs, devices, and cosmetics.
     (c) Promote thereby uniformity of such state and federal laws, and their administration and enforcement, throughout the United States.

Regulation for Drugs, Devices, and medical gases
This rule guides provides to understand the purchase storage of Drugs, Devices and Medical gases.