As used in this chapter and section 19a-906, unless the context otherwise requires:

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(1) “Emergency medical service system” means a system which provides for (A) the arrangement of personnel, facilities and equipment for the efficient, effective and coordinated delivery of health care services under emergency conditions, and (B) mobile integrated health care;

(2) “Patient” means an injured or ill person or a person with a physical disability requiring assistance and transportation;

(3) “Ambulance” means a motor vehicle specifically designed to carry patients;

(4) “Ambulance service” means an organization which transports patients;

(5) “Emergency medical technician” means a person who is certified pursuant to chapter 384d;

(6) “Emergency medical services instructor” means a person who is certified pursuant to chapter 384d;

(7) “Communications facility” means any facility housing the personnel and equipment for handling the emergency communications needs of a particular geographic area;

(8) “Life saving equipment” means equipment used by emergency medical personnel for the stabilization and treatment of patients;

(9) “Emergency medical service organization” means any corporation or organization whether public, private or voluntary that (A) is licensed or certified by the Department of Public Health’s Office of Emergency Medical Services, and (B) offers ambulance transportation or treatment services to patients primarily under emergency conditions or a mobile integrated health care program;

(10) “Invalid coach” means a vehicle used exclusively for the transportation of nonambulatory patients, who are not confined to stretchers, to or from either a medical facility or the patient‘s home in nonemergency situations or utilized in emergency situations as a backup vehicle when insufficient emergency vehicles exist;

(11) “Rescue service” means any organization, whether for-profit or nonprofit, whose primary purpose is to search for persons who have become lost or to render emergency service to persons who are in dangerous or perilous circumstances;

(12) “Commissioner” means the Commissioner of Public Health;

(13) “Paramedic” means a person licensed pursuant to chapter 384d;

(14) “Commercial ambulance service” means an ambulance service which primarily operates for profit;

(15) “Licensed ambulance service” means a commercial ambulance service or a volunteer or municipal ambulance service issued a license by the commissioner;

(16) “Certified ambulance service” means a municipal, volunteer or nonprofit ambulance service issued a certificate by the commissioner;

(17) “Automatic external defibrillator” means a device that: (A) Is used to administer an electric shock through the chest wall to the heart; (B) contains internal decision-making electronics, microcomputers or special software that allows it to interpret physiologic signals, make medical diagnosis and, if necessary, apply therapy; (C) guides the user through the process of using the device by audible or visual prompts; and (D) does not require the user to employ any discretion or judgment in its use;

(18) “Mutual aid call” means a call for emergency medical services that, pursuant to the terms of a written agreement, is responded to by a secondary or alternate emergency medical service organization if the primary or designated emergency medical service organization is unable to respond because such primary or designated emergency medical service organization is responding to another call for emergency medical services or the ambulance or nontransport emergency vehicle operated by such primary or designated emergency medical service organization is out of service. For purposes of this subdivision, “nontransport emergency vehicle” means a vehicle used by emergency medical technicians or paramedics in responding to emergency calls that is not used to carry patients;

(19) “Municipality” means the legislative body of a municipality or the board of selectmen in the case of a municipality in which the legislative body is a town meeting;

(20) “Primary service area” means a specific geographic area to which one designated emergency medical service organization is assigned for each category of emergency medical response services;

(21) “Primary service area responder” means an emergency medical service organization who is designated to respond to a victim of sudden illness or injury in a primary service area;

(22) “Interfacility critical care transport” means the interfacility transport of a patient between licensed health care institutions;

(23) “Advanced emergency medical technician” means an individual who is certified as an advanced emergency medical technician pursuant to chapter 384d;

(24) “Emergency medical responder” means an individual who is certified pursuant to chapter 384d;

(25) “Medical oversight” means the active surveillance by physicians of the provision of emergency medical services sufficient for the assessment of overall emergency medical service practice levels, as defined by state-wide protocols;

(26) “Office of Emergency Medical Services” means the office established within the Department of Public Health pursuant to section 19a-178;

(27) “Sponsor hospital” means a hospital that has agreed to maintain staff for the provision of medical oversight, supervision and direction to an emergency medical service organization and its personnel and has been approved for such activity by the Department of Public Health;

(28) “Paramedic intercept service” means paramedic treatment services provided by an entity that does not provide the ground ambulance transport;

(29) “Authorized emergency medical services vehicle” means an ambulance, invalid coach or advanced emergency technician-staffed intercept vehicle or a paramedic-staffed intercept vehicle licensed or certified by the Department of Public Health for purposes of providing emergency medical care to patients;

(30) “Emergency medical services personnel” means an individual certified to practice as an emergency medical responder, emergency medical technician, advanced emergency medical technician, emergency medical services instructor or an individual licensed as a paramedic;

(31) “Mobile integrated health care program” means a program approved by the commissioner in which a licensed or certified ambulance service or paramedic intercept service provides services, including clinically appropriate medical evaluations, treatment, transport or referrals to other health care providers under nonemergency conditions by a paramedic acting within the scope of his or her practice as part of an emergency medical services organization within the emergency medical services system; and

(32) “Alternate destination” means a destination other than an emergency department that is a medically appropriate facility.