Medical Transport Regulations

Emergency services are a principal component to all forms of medical transportation. Regulations on medical transport vehicles keep automobiles up-to-date and equipped with current technologies necessary for patient care. Medical transport regulations also effect patient transfer decisions. Whether pertaining to a Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulance, an Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulance or a Rotary Wing Air Ambulance (RW), medical transport regulations address life and death issues.

BLS Ambulance Regulations

• BLS ambulances are often dispatched for people with broken hands.

  BLS ambulances are designed with standard life support provisions and are regulated by definitions stated by the National Emergency Medicine Association. BLS ambulances are regulated to standard dispatches where patients are usually local in proximity and medical conditions are not life threatening. BLS ambulances must also be staffed with state-licensed emergency medical technicians or paramedics. In addition, continued education in skills development is a typical requirement for medical professionals who work with BLS ambulance transportation. Regulation specificity is determined state to state.

ALS Ambulance Regulations

• ALS ambulances service specialty care transports.

  A person who is critically injured will often receive care from an ALS ambulance. Regulations for ALS ambulances include advanced service oversight and determination of procedures the transport must be equipped to perform. ALS assessments must be executed by an ALS crew, according to MedLaw, and an ALS intervention is regulated "as a procedure beyond the scope of an EMT-Basic as defined in the National EMS Education and Practice Blueprint." ALS ambulances are required to administer a minimum of three dissimilar medications "or the provision of one or more of the following ALS procedures: Manual defibrillation/cardioversion, endotracheal intubation, central venous line, cardiac pacing, chest decompression, surgical airway or intraosseous line."

RW Regulations

• A car crash may require an RW to transport a patient.

  Services of Rotary Wing Air Ambulances--or Med-Vac helicopters---are regulated to the coverage of medical emergencies, according to MedLaw, "When the point from which the beneficiary is transported to the nearest hospital with appropriate facilities" is unable to be reached by BLS/ALS ambulances---or other ground vehicles. RWs are also required modes of medical transportation when significant distances or other obstacles (i.e., bodies of water) pose a grave threat to a patient's medical condition. As with BLS/ALS medical transportation, specific details of RW ambulance regulation vary by state.