KNA issues legislative alert over paramedics and triage

Kentucky Nurses Association

LEGISLATIVE ALERT 

Regulations related to hospitals, 902 KAR 20:016 have been amended and were presented at a hearing in Frankfort on Monday. This amendment included language to allow paramedics to triage in the Emergency Rooms of Kentucky Hospitals. 

KNA requested the hearing and a group of 8 individuals attended. We voiced the reasons for our objections to this language. The next step is for the Office of the Inspector General to take the testimony and written information provided at the hearing, and decide if it has merit. If so, he may amend the language again.

Following that, the regulation will be sent to the Regulation Review Subcommittee on August 13. This meeting is held in the Capital Annex and starts ant 10:00 AM.

KNA is adamantly opposed to Paramedics performing triage in the hospital setting. The reasons for this are: 

• Patient Safety — Paramedics are trained to perform “in-field” triage, emergency treatment and transport to an emergency room. Their training does not provide for the depth and breadth of knowledge needed by triage nurses in the in-patient setting. 
• Loss of Emergency Services in Counties -- With this expansion of practice, more paramedics will be leaving the emergency services arena, which may well decimate some counties EMS services. KNA is concerned with the provision of healthcare in all settings for the citizens of the Commonwealth.
• Expansion of Scope of Practice — The addition of triage language to this regulation expands the scope of practice for paramedics without defining that practice. This needs to be done before the use of only one aspect of practice is placed in any regulation. 

We are asking you to contact your legislators and / or the legislators who will sit on the Reg. Review Subcommittee. Please drive home the above points, let them know that triage is a function of a highly educated professional, specially trained for this function in the in-hospital setting. If you do not know who your Representative or Senator is, you can find that information at www.lrc.state.ky.us. 

We are also asking that nurses who are available and willing to come to Frankfort on the August 13 to STAND AND BE COUNTED. You may speak against this issue if you are comfortable doing so, or you can be there to show your support. 

The list of Administrative Regulation Review Subcommittee Members follows.

Members of the Administrative Regulation Review Subcommittee. 
First Nick Last Title1 City Office Home DISTRICT 

• John Arnold Representative Sturgis 7 
• Marshall Long Senator Shelbyville 502-633-3621 20 
• Joey Pendleton Senator Hopkinsville 270-885-1639 3 
• Richard "Dick" Roeding Senator Lakeside Park 859-331-1684 11
• Woody Allen Representative Morgantown 270-526-4149 17
• James "Jim" Bruce Representative Hopkinsville 270-886-2422 9
• Jimmie Lee Representative Elizabethtown 270-737-8889 25

BACK TO NEWS INDEX

BACK TO MAIN INDEX

COMMENTS

Copyright © 2002 The Kentucky EMS Connection. All rights reserved. News stories may be copyrighted by another organization. Original material may be reproduced provided source is credited.