Chapter 1-EMS Systems

Question 1

Oversight by the medical director to ensure the appropriate medical care standards are met by EMTs on each call.

Answer 1

Quality Control

Question 2

A system that assists dispatchers in selecting appropriate units to respond to a particular call for assistance and provides callers with vital instructions until the arrival of EMS crews.

Answer 2

emergency medical dispatch

Question 3

Comprehensive legislation that is designed to protect people with disabilities against discrimination.

Answer 3

Americans With Disabilities Act

Question 4

A device that detects treatable life-threatening cardiac dysrhythmias (ventricular tachycardia) and delivers the appropriate electrical shock to the patient.

Answer 4

automated external defibrillator

Question 5

Physician instructions given directly by radio or cell phone (online/direct) or indirectly by protocol/guidelines (offline/indirect), as authorized by the medical director of the service program.

Answer 5

medical control

Question 6

Efforts to prevent an injury or illness from ever occurring.

Answer 6

primary prevention

Question 7

The delivery of medication directly into a vein

Answer 7

intravenous therapy

Question 8

An individual who has training in specific aspects of advanced life support, such as interventions therapy, and the administration of certain emergency medications.

Answer 8

advanced EMT

Question 9

Federal legislation passed in 1996. Its main effect in EMS is in limiting availability of patients’ health care information and penalizing violations of patient privacy.

Answer 9

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

Question 10

The process whereby a competent authority, usually the state, allows people to perform a regulated act.

Answer 10

licensure

Question 11

An individual who has training in basic life support, including automated external defibrillation, use of a definitive first adjunct, and assisting patients with certain medications.

Answer 11

emergency medical technician (EMT)

Question 12

A system of internal and external reviews and audits of all aspects of an EMS system aimed at improving outcomes.

Answer 12

continuous quality improvement

Question 13

A document created by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that outlines the skills performed by various EMS providers.

Answer 13

National EMS Scope of Practice Model

Question 14

A health care model in which experienced paramedics receive advanced training to equip them to provide additional services in the prehospital environment, such as health evaluations, monitoring of chronic illnesses or conditions, and patient advocacy.

Answer 14

community paramedicine

Question 15

A prices in which a person, an institution, or a program is evaluated and recognized as meeting certain predetermined standards to provide safe and ethical care.

Answer 15

certification

Question 16

An approach to medicine where decisions are based on well-conducted research, classifying recommendations based on the strength of the scientific evidence; also called science-based medicine.

Answer 16

evidence-based medicine

Question 17

A multidisciplinary system that represents the combined rights of several professionals and agencies to provide prehospital emergency care to the sick and injured.

Answer 17

emergency medical services

Question 18

An established process to determine the qualifications necessary to be allowed to practice a particular profession, or to function as an organization

Answer 18

credentialing

Question 19

A call center, staffed by trained personnel who are responsible for managing requests for police, fire, and ambulance services.

Answer 19

public safely access point

Question 20

The physician who authorizes or delegates to the EMT the authority to provide medical care in the field.

Answer 20

medical director

Question 21

An individual who has extensive training in advanced life support, including endotracheal intubation, emergency pharmacology, cardiac monitoring, and other advanced assessment and treatment skills

Answer 21

paramedic

Question 22

The designated area in which the EMS agency is responsible for the provision of prehospital emergency care and transportation to the hospital.

Answer 22

primary service area

Question 23

Efforts to limit the effects of an injury or illness that you can’t completely prevent

Answer 23

secondary prevention

Question 24

The branch of medicine that is focused on examining the health needs of entire populations with the goal of preventing health problems.

Answer 24

public health

Question 25

A trained professional such as a police officer, firefighter, lifeguard, or other rescue, who may arrive first at the scene of an emergency to provide initial medical assistance.

Answer 25

emergency medical responder

Question 26

Advanced life-saving procedures, some of which are now being provided by the EMT.

Answer 26

advanced life support

Question 27

A method of delivering health care that involves providing health care within the community rather than at a physician’s office or hospital.

Answer 27

mobile integrated health care