As used in sections 190.001 to 190.245 and section 190.257, the following words and terms mean:

(1) “Advanced emergency medical technician” or “AEMT”, a person who has successfully completed a course of instruction in certain aspects of advanced life support care as prescribed by the department and is licensed by the department in accordance with sections 190.001 to 190.245 and rules and regulations adopted by the department pursuant to sections 190.001 to 190.245;

Ask a legal question, get an answer ASAP!
Click here to chat with a lawyer about your rights.

(2) “Advanced life support (ALS)”, an advanced level of care as provided to the adult and pediatric patient such as defined by national curricula, and any modifications to that curricula specified in rules adopted by the department pursuant to sections 190.001 to 190.245;

(3) “Ambulance”, any privately or publicly owned vehicle or craft that is specially designed, constructed or modified, staffed or equipped for, and is intended or used, maintained or operated for the transportation of persons who are sick, injured, wounded or otherwise incapacitated or helpless, or who require the presence of medical equipment being used on such individuals, but the term does not include any motor vehicle specially designed, constructed or converted for the regular transportation of persons who are disabled, handicapped, normally using a wheelchair, or otherwise not acutely ill, or emergency vehicles used within airports;

(4) “Ambulance service”, a person or entity that provides emergency or nonemergency ambulance transportation and services, or both, in compliance with sections 190.001 to 190.245, and the rules promulgated by the department pursuant to sections 190.001 to 190.245;

(5) “Ambulance service area”, a specific geographic area in which an ambulance service has been authorized to operate;

(6) “Basic life support (BLS)”, a basic level of care, as provided to the adult and pediatric patient as defined by national curricula, and any modifications to that curricula specified in rules adopted by the department pursuant to sections 190.001 to 190.245;

(7) “Council”, the state advisory council on emergency medical services;

(8) “Department”, the department of health and senior services, state of Missouri;

(9) “Director”, the director of the department of health and senior services or the director’s duly authorized representative;

(10) “Dispatch agency”, any person or organization that receives requests for emergency medical services from the public, by telephone or other means, and is responsible for dispatching emergency medical services;

(11) “Emergency”, the sudden and, at the time, unexpected onset of a health condition that manifests itself by symptoms of sufficient severity that would lead a prudent layperson, possessing an average knowledge of health and medicine, to believe that the absence of immediate medical care could result in:

(a) Placing the person’s health, or with respect to a pregnant woman, the health of the woman or her unborn child, in significant jeopardy;

(b) Serious impairment to a bodily function;

(c) Serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part;

(d) Inadequately controlled pain;

(12) “Emergency medical dispatcher”, a person who receives emergency calls from the public and has successfully completed an emergency medical dispatcher course and any ongoing training requirements under section 650.340;

(13) “Emergency medical responder”, a person who has successfully completed an emergency first response course meeting or exceeding the national curriculum of the U.S. Department of Transportation and any modifications to such curricula specified by the department through rules adopted under sections 190.001 to 190.245 and who provides emergency medical care through employment by or in association with an emergency medical response agency;

(14) “Emergency medical response agency”, any person that regularly provides a level of care that includes first response, basic life support or advanced life support, exclusive of patient transportation;

(15) “Emergency medical services for children (EMS-C) system”, the arrangement of personnel, facilities and equipment for effective and coordinated delivery of pediatric emergency medical services required in prevention and management of incidents which occur as a result of a medical emergency or of an injury event, natural disaster or similar situation;

(16) “Emergency medical services (EMS) system”, the arrangement of personnel, facilities and equipment for the effective and coordinated delivery of emergency medical services required in prevention and management of incidents occurring as a result of an illness, injury, natural disaster or similar situation;

(17) “Emergency medical technician”, a person licensed in emergency medical care in accordance with standards prescribed by sections 190.001 to 190.245, and by rules adopted by the department pursuant to sections 190.001 to 190.245;

(18) “Emergency medical technician-community paramedic”, “community paramedic”, or “EMT-CP”, a person who is certified as an emergency medical technician-paramedic and is certified by the department in accordance with standards prescribed in section 190.098;

(19) “Emergency services”, health care items and services furnished or required to screen and stabilize an emergency which may include, but shall not be limited to, health care services that are provided in a licensed hospital’s emergency facility by an appropriate provider or by an ambulance service or emergency medical response agency;

(20) “Health care facility”, a hospital, nursing home, physician’s office or other fixed location at which medical and health care services are performed;

(21) “Hospital”, an establishment as defined in the hospital licensing law, subsection 2 of section 197.020, or a hospital operated by the state;

(22) “Medical control”, supervision provided by or under the direction of physicians, or their designated registered nurse, including both online medical control, instructions by radio, telephone, or other means of direct communications, and offline medical control through supervision by treatment protocols, case review, training, and standing orders for treatment;

(23) “Medical direction”, medical guidance and supervision provided by a physician to an emergency services provider or emergency medical services system;

(24) “Medical director”, a physician licensed pursuant to chapter 334 designated by the ambulance service, dispatch agency, or emergency medical response agency and who meets criteria specified by the department by rules pursuant to sections 190.001 to 190.245;

(25) “Memorandum of understanding”, an agreement between an emergency medical response agency or dispatch agency and an ambulance service or services within whose territory the agency operates, in order to coordinate emergency medical services;

(26) “Paramedic”, a person who has successfully completed a course of instruction in advanced life support care as prescribed by the department and is licensed by the department in accordance with sections 190.001 to 190.245 and rules adopted by the department pursuant to sections 190.001 to 190.245;

(27) “Patient”, an individual who is sick, injured, wounded, diseased, or otherwise incapacitated or helpless, or dead, excluding deceased individuals being transported from or between private or public institutions, homes or cemeteries, and individuals declared dead prior to the time an ambulance is called for assistance;

(28) “Person”, as used in these definitions and elsewhere in sections 190.001 to 190.245, any individual, firm, partnership, copartnership, joint venture, association, cooperative organization, corporation, municipal or private, and whether organized for profit or not, state, county, political subdivision, state department, commission, board, bureau or fraternal organization, estate, public trust, business or common law trust, receiver, assignee for the benefit of creditors, trustee or trustee in bankruptcy, or any other service user or provider;

(29) “Physician”, a person licensed as a physician pursuant to chapter 334;

(30) “Political subdivision”, any municipality, city, county, city not within a county, ambulance district or fire protection district located in this state which provides or has authority to provide ambulance service;

(31) “Professional organization”, any organized group or association with an ongoing interest regarding emergency medical services. Such groups and associations could include those representing volunteers, labor, management, firefighters, EMTs, nurses, paramedics, physicians, communications specialists and instructors. Organizations could also represent the interests of ground ambulance services, air ambulance services, fire service organizations, law enforcement, hospitals, trauma centers, communication centers, pediatric services, labor unions and poison control services;

(32) “Proof of financial responsibility”, proof of ability to respond to damages for liability, on account of accidents occurring subsequent to the effective date of such proof, arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use of a motor vehicle in the financial amount set in rules promulgated by the department, but in no event less than the statutory minimum required for motor vehicles. Proof of financial responsibility shall be used as proof of self-insurance;

(33) “Protocol”, a predetermined, written medical care guideline, which may include standing orders;

(34) “Regional EMS advisory committee”, a committee formed within an emergency medical services (EMS) region to advise ambulance services, the state advisory council on EMS and the department;

(35) “Specialty care transportation”, the transportation of a patient requiring the services of an emergency medical technician-paramedic who has received additional training beyond the training prescribed by the department. Specialty care transportation services shall be defined in writing in the appropriate local protocols for ground and air ambulance services and approved by the local physician medical director. The protocols shall be maintained by the local ambulance service and shall define the additional training required of the emergency medical technician-paramedic;

(36) “Stabilize”, with respect to an emergency, the provision of such medical treatment as may be necessary to attempt to assure within reasonable medical probability that no material deterioration of an individual’s medical condition is likely to result from or occur during ambulance transportation unless the likely benefits of such transportation outweigh the risks;

(37) “State advisory council on emergency medical services”, a committee formed to advise the department on policy affecting emergency medical service throughout the state;

(38) “State EMS medical directors advisory committee”, a subcommittee of the state advisory council on emergency medical services formed to advise the state advisory council on emergency medical services and the department on medical issues;

(39) “STEMI” or “ST-elevation myocardial infarction”, a type of heart attack in which impaired blood flow to the patient’s heart muscle is evidenced by ST-segment elevation in electrocardiogram analysis, and as further defined in rules promulgated by the department under sections 190.001 to 190.250;

(40) “STEMI care”, includes education and prevention, emergency transport, triage, and acute care and rehabilitative services for STEMI that requires immediate medical or surgical intervention or treatment;

(41) “STEMI center”, a hospital that is currently designated as such by the department to care for patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarctions;

(42) “Stroke”, a condition of impaired blood flow to a patient’s brain as defined by the department;

(43) “Stroke care”, includes emergency transport, triage, and acute intervention and other acute care services for stroke that potentially require immediate medical or surgical intervention or treatment, and may include education, primary prevention, acute intervention, acute and subacute management, prevention of complications, secondary stroke prevention, and rehabilitative services;

(44) “Stroke center”, a hospital that is currently designated as such by the department;

(45) “Time-critical diagnosis”, trauma care, stroke care, and STEMI care occurring either outside of a hospital or in a center designated under section 190.241;

(46) “Time-critical diagnosis advisory committee”, a committee formed under section 190.257 to advise the department on policies impacting trauma, stroke, and STEMI center designations; regulations on trauma care, stroke care, and STEMI care; and the transport of trauma, stroke, and STEMI patients;

(47) “Trauma”, an injury to human tissues and organs resulting from the transfer of energy from the environment;

(48) “Trauma care” includes injury prevention, triage, acute care and rehabilitative services for major single system or multisystem injuries that potentially require immediate medical or surgical intervention or treatment;

(49) “Trauma center”, a hospital that is currently designated as such by the department.