Prehospital Emergency Care - Medical, Legal, and Ethical Issues

Vocabulary flashcards covering legal, ethical, and scope of practice concepts for prehospital emergency medical care.

Scope of Practice

The actions and care that EMTs are legally allowed to perform by the state in which they are providing emergency medical care.

Standard of Care

The care that is expected to be provided by an EMT with similar training when managing a patient in a similar situation.

Duty to Act

The legal obligation of an EMT to provide emergency medical service, whether on duty or under specific legally required circumstances.

Good Samaritan Law

A law that protects an uncompensated person from liability for acts performed in good faith during an emergency unless those acts constitute gross negligence.

Ethics

The standard of behavior established for a profession.

Morals

An individual's personal opinions and beliefs regarding right and wrong.

Expressed Consent

Permission for care obtained from every conscious, competent adult patient who is capable of making an informed and rational medical decision.

Implied Consent

Legal presumption that an unresponsive or incapacitated patient would consent to emergency medical care if they were capable of expressing their wishes.

Minor Consent

Permission for medical treatment required from a parent or legal guardian for a minor patient, falling back on implied consent if the guardian cannot be reached.

Emancipated Minor

A minor who is legally treated as an adult because they are married, pregnant, a parent, serving in the armed forces, or declared emancipated by a court decree.

Involuntary Consent

Consent for medical treatment applied to adults who are mentally incompetent, incarcerated, or under the custody of law enforcement.

Advance Directive

A legal document that pre-determines and explains how medical decisions are to be made for a patient if they become unable to make decisions for themselves.

Living Will

An advance directive dictating future healthcare decisions regarding life-prolonging treatments when a person becomes terminally ill or comatose.

Medical Power of Attorney

A legal document appointing a designated agent or proxy to make all medical decisions on behalf of a patient if they become incapacitated.

Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) Order

A standardized legal document signed by a physician and patient directing healthcare providers to withhold resuscitation measures during cardiac or respiratory arrest.

POLST

Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment; voluntary medical orders discussed with a physician for patients with terminal illnesses expected to live under 1 year, detailing specific desired and undesired interventions.

Negligence

A civil tort involving failure to provide appropriate care, requiring proof of duty to act, breach of duty, damages, and proximate cause.

Breach of Duty

An element of negligence occurring when an EMT deviates from the accepted standard of care when managing a patient.

Proximate Cause

An element of negligence establishing that a patient's demonstrable injuries were a direct result of the EMT's negligent action or inaction.

Intentional Tort

A wrongful action knowingly committed by an individual that causes civil harm under the law.

Abandonment

Discontinuing treatment of a patient without transferring care to another competent professional of an equal or higher level of training.

Assault

A willful threat to inflict harm on a patient that creates a reasonable fear that the act will be committed.

Battery

The unlawful physical contact or touching of a patient without their consent, regardless of beneficial intent.

False Imprisonment

The intentional transport or detention of a competent patient against their express wishes without legal authorization.

Defamation

Releasing false or harmful information that damages an individual's character, reputation, or standing in the community.

Slander

The spoken form of defamation.

Libel

The written form of defamation.

HIPAA

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act; a federal law that safeguards patient health information privacy and controls its distribution.

EMTALA

Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act; federal regulation guaranteeing public access to emergency care regardless of ability to pay and preventing patient dumping.

COBRA

Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act; federal regulations that protect patient access to emergency medical services alongside EMTALA.

Rigor Mortis

The postmortem stiffening of body muscles that develops between 2 and 12 hours after death, serving as a definitive sign to withhold resuscitation.

Dependent Lividity

Postmortem settling and pooling of blood in lower body surfaces causing skin discoloration, representing a definitive sign of death.

Baby Safe-Haven Law

Statute (also known as the Baby Moses law) permitting parents to safely surrender an unharmed infant (up to 60 days old in Texas) to employees at designated facilities without fear of prosecution for abandonment.

Texas Good Samaritan Act

A Texas statute protecting voluntary off-duty emergency rescuers from civil liability when providing emergency assistance in good faith without gross negligence.