SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 2002

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: MAY 15, 1997

      The Senate Health Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 2002 with committee amendments.

      As amended by committee, this bill provides that an authorized mobile intensive care unit (MICU) operating pursuant to State law as of the effective date of this bill, which elects to operate one or more transport-capable ambulances as a MICU vehicle, may, in the course of responding to a call for emergency medical assistance, transport a patient to an appropriate emergency treatment facility, at the discretion of a mobile intensive care paramedic or registered professional nurse staffing the vehicle, if : (a) the mobile intensive care paramedic or registered professional nurse staffing the mobile intensive care unit has completed all field treatment of the patient; (b) the primary basic life support ambulance service provider for that municipality has not arrived with an ambulance, or its arrival is not imminent, at the scene of the medical emergency at the time the paramedic or nurse determines that it is necessary to transport the patient to an emergency treatment facility; and (c) the paramedic or nurse has made appropriate inquiries regarding the response status of the municipality's primary basic life support ambulance provider. Also, the bill provides that none of the provisions of the bill shall be construed to alter normal patient-flow patterns for mobile intensive care units or primary basic life support ambulance providers.

      The provisions of this bill shall constitute a waiver to any certificate of need issued to a hospital to develop and maintain a MICU, which shall authorize that unit to operate one or more transport-capable ambulances as a MICU vehicle in accordance with regulations adopted by the commissioner.

      The committee amended the bill to clarify the conditions under which the mobile intensive care unit may transport a patient. The amendments add the conditions that: the mobile intensive care paramedic or registered professional nurse staffing the mobile intensive care unit has completed all field treatment of the patient; an emergency ambulance has not arrived, or its arrival is not imminent, on the scene of the medical emergency; and the paramedic or nurse has made appropriate inquiries regarding the response status of the basic life support ambulance provider. Amendments also provide that nothing in the bill shall be construed to alter normal patient-flow patterns for mobile intensive care units or primary basic life support ambulance providers.