As used in this article 3.5, unless the context
otherwise requires:
(1) Air ambulance means a fixed-wing or rotor-wing aircraft that is
equipped to provide air transportation and is specifically designed to accommodate
the medical needs of individuals who are ill, injured, or otherwise mentally or
physically incapacitated and who require in-flight medical supervision.
(1.3) Air ambulance service means any public or private entity that uses an
air ambulance to transport patients to a medical facility.
(1.5) Ambulance means any privately or publicly owned ground vehicle:
(a) Especially constructed or modified and equipped, intended to be used,
and maintained or operated by an ambulance service for the transportation, upon
the streets and highways in this state, of individuals who are sick, injured, or
otherwise incapacitated or helpless; and
(b) That is required to be licensed pursuant to part 3 of this article.
(2) (Deleted by amendment, L. 2005, p. 1330, � 1, effective July 1, 2005.)
(3) Ambulance service means the furnishing, operating, conducting,
maintaining, advertising, or otherwise engaging in or professing to be engaged in
the transportation of patients by ambulance. Taken in context, it also means the
person so engaged or professing to be so engaged. The person so engaged and the
vehicles used for the emergency transportation of persons injured at a mine are
excluded from this definition when the personnel utilized in the operation of said
vehicles are subject to the mandatory safety standards of the federal mine safety
and health administration, or its successor agency.
(3.1) Authorization to operate or authorized to operate means a local
licensing authority's approval of or act of approving an ambulance service to
operate within the jurisdiction of the local licensing authority.
(3.3) Behavioral health has the same meaning as set forth in section 27-50-101 (1).
(3.5) Board means the state board of health created pursuant to section
25-1-103.
(4) Board of county commissioners includes the governing body of any city
and county.
(4.3) Community integrated health-care service means the provision of
certain out-of-hospital medical services, as determined by rule, that a community
paramedic may provide.
(4.5) Community paramedic means an emergency medical service provider
who obtains an endorsement in community paramedicine pursuant to section 25-3.5-206.
(4.7) Council means the state emergency medical and trauma services
advisory council created in section 25-3.5-104 (1)(a).
(5) Department means the department of public health and environment.
(6) Director means the executive director of the department of public
health and environment.
(7) Emergency means any actual or self-perceived event which threatens
life, limb, or well-being of an individual in such a manner that a need for immediate
medical care is created.
(7.5) Emergency medical practice advisory council or advisory council
means the emergency medical practice advisory council created in section 25-3.5-206.
(8) Emergency medical service provider means an individual who holds a
valid emergency medical service provider certificate or license issued by the
department as provided in this article 3.5.
(8.1) [ Editor's note: This version of subsection (8.1) is effective until July 1,
2026. ] Emergency medical services facility means a licensed or certified facility
that provides emergency medical services, including but not limited to hospitals,
hospital units as defined in section 25-3-101, freestanding emergency departments
as defined in section 25-1.5-114, psychiatric hospitals, community clinics,
community mental health centers, and acute treatment units.
(8.1) [ Editor's note: This version of subsection (8.1) is effective July 1, 2026. ] Emergency medical services facility means a licensed or certified facility that
provides emergency medical services, including but not limited to hospitals,
hospital units as defined in section 25-3-101, freestanding emergency departments
as defined in section 25-1.5-114, critical access hospitals as defined in section 25-1.5-114.5, psychiatric hospitals, community clinics, community mental health
centers, and acute treatment units.
(8.3) EMS agency patient care database means the department's database
containing records required to be submitted in accordance with section 25-3.5-501.
(8.4) EMS system sustainability task force or task force means the EMS
system sustainability task force created in section 25-3.5-108 (1)(a).
(8.5) Health information organization network means an organization that
oversees and governs the exchange of health-related information among
organizations according to nationally recognized standards.
(8.6) Justifiable medical emergency means an underlying medical,
traumatic, or psychiatric condition posing an immediate safety risk to the individual,
emergency medical service provider, or public. Excited delirium, any subsequent
term for excited delirium, or any acute psychiatric diagnosis not recognized in the
most recent edition of the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders is
not a justifiable medical emergency.
(8.7) Local licensing authority means the governing body of a city and
county or the board of county commissioners in a county in the state.
(8.8) Medical direction includes, but is not limited to, the following:
(a) Approval of the medical components of treatment protocols and
appropriate prearrival instructions;
(b) Routine review of program performance and maintenance of active
involvement in quality improvement activities, including access to dispatch tapes as
necessary for the evaluation of procedures;
(c) Authority to recommend appropriate changes to protocols for the
improvement of patient care; and
(d) Provision of oversight for the ongoing education, training, and quality
assurance for providers of emergency care.
(9) Patient means any individual who is sick, injured, or otherwise
incapacitated or helpless.
(10) Permit means the authorization issued by the department with respect
to an ambulance used or to be used to provide ambulance service in the state.
(10.3) Prehospital setting means one of the following settings in which an
emergency medical service provider performs patient care, which care is subject to
medical direction by a medical director:
(a) At the site of an emergency;
(b) During emergency transport; or
(c) During interfacility transport.
(10.6) Refresher course program means a program establishing a course of
instruction designed to keep emergency medical service providers abreast of
developments or new techniques in their profession, which course includes an
examination administered at any time during or following the course to facilitate
continuing evaluation of emergency medical service providers.
(10.8) Registered emergency medical responder means an individual who
has successfully completed the training and examination requirements for
emergency medical responders, who provides assistance to the injured or ill until
more highly trained and qualified personnel arrive, and who is registered with the
department pursuant to part 11 of this article.
(11) Rescue unit means any organized group chartered by this state as a
corporation not for profit or otherwise existing as a nonprofit organization whose
purpose is the search for and the rescue of lost or injured persons and includes, but
is not limited to, such groups as search and rescue, mountain rescue, ski patrols
(either volunteer or professional), law enforcement posses, civil defense units, or
other organizations of governmental designation responsible for search and rescue.
(11.4) (a) Secure transportation or secure transportation services means
urgent transportation services provided to individuals experiencing a behavioral
health crisis.
(b) Secure transportation includes:
(I) For an individual being transported pursuant to section 27-65-104 or 27-65-106 (1), transportation from the community to a facility designated by the
commissioner of the behavioral health administration in the department of human
services for treatment and evaluation pursuant to article 65 of title 27;
(II) For an individual in need of services pursuant to articles 81 and 82 of title
27, transportation from any location to an approved treatment facility, as described
in section 27-81-106, or a walk-in crisis center that is operating as part of the
behavioral health crisis response system;
(III) For an individual who is receiving transportation across levels of care or
to a higher level of care, transportation between any of the following types of
facilities:
(A) An emergency medical services facility;
(B) A facility designated by the commissioner of the behavioral health
administration in the department of human services for treatment and evaluation
pursuant to article 65 of title 27;
(C) An approved treatment facility, as described in section 27-81-106;
(D) A walk-in crisis center that is operating as part of the behavioral health
crisis response system; or
(E) A behavioral health entity licensed pursuant to section 25-27.6-106 with
a current twenty-four-hour endorsement.
(c) Secure transportation does not include urgent transportation services
provided by law enforcement or personnel employed by or contracted with a law
enforcement agency to individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis; except
that any member of a co-responder team who is not law enforcement or personnel
employed by or contracted with a law enforcement agency and who holds a valid
license for secure transportation by the county in which the secure transportation
originates, in a vehicle with a valid permit issued by the county in which the secure
transportation originates, and which meets the minimum requirements for secure
transportation established by rule pursuant to section 25-3.5-311 may provide
urgent secure transportation services.
(11.5) Service agency means a fixed-base or mobile prehospital provider of
emergency medical services that employs emergency medical service providers to
render medical care to patients.
(12) Volunteer emergency medical service provider means an emergency
medical service provider who does not receive direct remuneration for the
performance of emergency medical services.