Case law involving base-station contact.
BACKGROUND
Although general discussion of legal claims against emergency medical services (EMS) have been published, there is no literature that examines legal claims that specifically have involved base-station contact for direct medical control.


METHODS
A review of case law through July 1994 was conducted to identify cases that involved radio communications between a prehospital provider and a physician or nurse under the direction of a physician.


RESULTS
Only eight cases could be identified. Each case is described in terms of the event, selected pertinent legal issues, and the opinions rendered by the court.


CONCLUSIONS
These few cases illustrate some important observations that indicate that there will occur an increase in the detail, role delineation, and clarification of the prehospital providers, medical directors, base-station physicians, and others who provide direct medical control to prehospital EMS providers. These findings have important implications for EMS medical directors.
Shanaberger
C J
CJ
D004631:Emergency Medical Service Communication Systems / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D004634:Emergency Medical Technicians / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D016365:Liability, Legal; D008318:Malpractice / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D012308:Risk Management; D014481:United States