Ch 3 Medical, Legal, and Ethical Issues in EMS

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the essential medical, legal, and ethical concepts for EMTs as outlined in Chapter 3 of Prehospital Emergency Care 12th Edition.

Scope of Practice

The actions and care that EMTs are legally allowed to perform by law, determined by the state and defined by sources like the National EMS Scope of Practice Model.

Duty to act

The legal obligation to provide service that exists while an EMT is on duty with their service.

Good Samaritan laws

Laws that protect a person not being paid for their services from liability for acts performed in good faith, excluding cases of gross negligence.

Medical direction

The authority upon which the legal right to function as an EMT is contingent; involves following approved standing orders and protocols.

Ethics

A branch of philosophy focused on the study of morality, typically involving standards for groups or professions.

Morals

Concepts of right and wrong, often based on an individual's perception.

EMT Code of Ethics

A professional standard that places the welfare of the patient above all else, requiring honesty, skill mastery, and harmonious work with the health care team.

Informed consent

Consent provided after a patient has been informed of the care to be provided and all associated risks and consequences.

Expressed consent

Consent from a patient of legal age who has the capacity to make a rational decision; can be verbal, non-verbal, or written.

Implied consent

Also known as the emergency doctrine, it assumes an unresponsive or incapacitated patient would consent to care if they were able to do so.

Involuntary consent

Consent that applies to mentally incompetent adults or individuals in the custody of law enforcement or incarceration.

Capacity

The status of a patient who is lucid, rational, and alert to person, place, events, and time ($A \& O \times 3$ or $A \& O \times 4$).

Negligence

A tort involving a breach of legal duty to act without intent to do harm, which results in harm or injury to a patient.

Proximate cause

An element of negligence where the patient's injury was a direct result of the EMT’s breach of duty.

Res ipsa loquitur

A legal principle meaning “the thing speaks for itself,” used when inappropriate actions in a negligence case are obvious.

Negligence per se

An act considered negligent simply because it violates a specific statute or regulation.

Slander

The spoken form of defamation.

Libel

A false or damaging statement made in written form or via mass media.

HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act; a federal law protecting the privacy of patient health care information.

COBRA and EMTALA

Federal regulations that ensure access to emergency health care regardless of a patient's ability to pay.

Rigor mortis

A physical sign of death in a patient without an advanced directive, characterized by the stiffening of the muscles.

Dependent lividity

A physical sign of death in a patient without an advanced directive, involving the settling of blood in lower parts of the body.

Advanced Directives

Legal documents such as a DNR, Living Will, or POLST that document a patient's wish not to be resuscitated.

POLST

Physician's orders for life-sustaining treatment, a type of advanced directive.

Baby safe-haven laws

Laws designed to prevent child abandonment by allowing a parent to relinquish custody of an unharmed infant to a proper authority, such as an EMS station.