title: Legal considerations in prehospital care.
abstract: This article presents an overview of several major legal issues in contemporary prehospital health care delivery and emergency medical services. It includes review and analysis of medical-legal issues in medical control; patient consent and treatment; modern emergency medical services communications; discussion of medical-legal concerns in regard to patient destination choice, diversion, and transfer; and an analysis of theories of recovery including a review of selected case histories.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Ayres
mesh_terms: D004631:Emergency Medical Service Communication Systems / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D016365:Liability, Legal; D010360:Patient Transfer / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D014481:United States