Ch. 1 - EMS Systems Vocabulary Flashcards
Advanced EMT (AEMT)
An individulal who has training in specific aspects of Advanced life support, such as intravenous therapy, and the administration of certain emergency medications.
Advanced life support (ALS)
Advanced life-saving procedures, some of which are now being provided by the EMT.
Americans With Disablilities Act (ADA)
Comprehensive legislation that is designed to protect people with disabilities against discrimination.
Automated external defibrillator (AED)
A device that detects treatable life-threatening cardiac dysrhythmias (ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia) and delivers the appropriate electrical shock to the patient.
Certification
A process in which a person, an institution, or a progran is evaluated and recognized as meeting certain predetermined standarts to provide safe and ethical care.
Community paramedicine
A health care model in which experienced paramedics recieve advanced training to equip them to provice additional services in the prehospital environment, such as health evaluations, monitoring of chronic ilnesses or conditions, and patient advocacy
Continuous quality improvement (CQI)
A system of internal and external reviews and auduts of all aspects of an EMS system aiming at improving outcomes.
credentialing
An established process to determine the qualifications necessary to be allowed to practice a particular profession, or to function as an organization.
Emergency medical dispatch (EMD)
A system that assistes dispatchers in selscting appropriate units to respond to a particular call for assistance and provides callers with vital instructions until the arrival of EMS crews.
Emergency medical responder (EMR)
A first aid trained professional, such as a police officer,, firefighter, lifeguard, or other rescuer, who may arrive first at the scene of an ermergency to provide initial medical assistance.
Emergency medical services (EMS)
A multi disciplinary system that represents the combined efforts of several professionals and agencies to provide prehospital care to the sick and injured.
Emergency medical Technitian (EMT)
An individual who has training in basic life support, including automated external defibrillation, use definitive airway adjunct, and assisting patients with certain medications.
Evidence-based medicine (EBM)
An approach to medicine where decisions are based on well-conducted research, classifying recommentations based on the strength of the scientific evidence; also calles science-based medicine.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Federal legislation passed in 1996. Its main effect in EMS is in limiting availability of patients’ health care informationand penalizing violations of patient privacy.
Intravenous (IV) Therapy
The delivery of medication directly into a vein.
Licensure
The process whereby a competent authority, usually the state, allows people to perform a regulated act.
Medical control
Physician instructions given directly by radio or cell phone (on-line/direct) or indirectly by protocol/guidelines (off-line/indirect), as authorized ty the medical director of the service program.
Medical director
The physician who authorizes or delegates to the EMT the authority to provide medical care in the field.
Mobile integrated health care (MIH)
A method of delivering health care that inbolves providing health care withing the community rather than at a physician’s office or hospital.
National EMS Scope of Practice Model
A document created by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that outines the skills performed by barious EMS providers.
Paramedic
An individual who has extensive training in advanced life support, including endotracheal intubation, emergency pharmacology, cardiac monitoring, and other advanced assessment and treatment skills.
Primary prevention
Efforts to prevent an injury or illness from ever occuring.
Primary service area (PSA)
The designated area in which the EMS agency is responsible fo the provision of prehospital emergency care and transportation to the hospital.
Public health
The branch of medicine that is focused on examining the health needs of the entire populations with the goal of preventing health problems.
Public safety access point
A call center, staffed by trained personnel who are responsible for managing requests for police, fire, and ambulance services.
Quality control
Oversight by the medical director to ensure the appropriate medical care standards are met by EMTs on each call.
Secondary prevention
Efforts to limit the effects of an injury or illness that your cannot completely prevent.
