Washington Code 70.168.010 – Legislative finding
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The legislature finds and declares that:
Terms Used In Washington Code 70.168.010
- Emergency medical service: means medical treatment and care that may be rendered at the scene of any medical emergency or while transporting any patient in an ambulance to an appropriate medical facility, including ambulance transportation between medical facilities. See Washington Code 70.168.015
- Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
- Trauma: means a major single or multisystem injury requiring immediate medical or surgical intervention or treatment to prevent death or permanent disability. See Washington Code 70.168.015
- Trauma care system: means an organized approach to providing care to trauma patients that provides personnel, facilities, and equipment for effective and coordinated trauma care. See Washington Code 70.168.015
(1) Trauma is a severe health problem in the state of Washington and a major cause of death;
(2) Presently, trauma care is very limited in many parts of the state, and health care in rural areas is in transition with the danger that some communities will be without emergency medical care;
(3) It is in the best interest of the citizens of Washington state to establish an efficient and well-coordinated statewide emergency medical services and trauma care system to reduce costs and incidence of inappropriate and inadequate trauma care and emergency medical service and minimize the human suffering and costs associated with preventable mortality and morbidity;
(4) The goals and objectives of an emergency medical services and trauma care system are to: (a) Pursue trauma prevention activities to decrease the incidence of trauma; (b) provide optimal care for the trauma victim; (c) prevent unnecessary death and disability from trauma and emergency illness; and (d) contain costs of trauma care and trauma system implementation; and
(5) In other parts of the United States where trauma care systems have failed and trauma care centers have closed, there is a direct relationship between such failures and closures and a lack of commitment to fair and equitable reimbursement for trauma care participating providers and system overhead costs.