As an emergency medical technician and paramedic, you are set apart from other healthcare experts because you make complex medical decisions and offer care to at-risk patients in high-stress circumstances. You should undergo extensive training and experience and build mental ability to obtain a license. Irrespective of your knowledge, certification level, and dedication, you should comply with strict protocols related to your profession. Otherwise, you could face disciplinary penalties as severe as license revocation when you make a mistake, even with the best intentions.

When your license and livelihood are at risk, you need someone who knows the complex disciplinary system to guide you. San Jose License Attorney has the knowledge and skills to challenge the accusations and stand up for your rights. We can assist you in facing this challenging time; our dedication is helping you keep the profession you love. This article will discuss common accusations, how we can assist you, and the disciplinary process.

What Do a Paramedic and an Emergency Medical Technician Do?

Paramedics and emergency medical technicians are first responders skilled to handle patients in an emergency and transport them to a medical facility.

When they reach an emergency, their responsibility might seem identical, and sometimes their duties overlap. Nevertheless, the training they undergo and the scope of care they offer differ.

After an emergency, 911 sends emergency medical technicians to the scene, working with firefighters and the police. The EMT examines a patient’s injury and stabilizes the patient before transporting them to a healthcare center in an ambulance. During the transit, you, the EMT, should monitor the patient and offer care until you arrive at the hospital. You should also notify the hospital of the patient’s illness or injuries.

In a nutshell, your responsibilities are as follows:

  • Responding to emergency calls
  • Reviewing patients at the emergency scene and offering care
  • Conducting cardiopulmonary resuscitation and regulating bleeding
  • Ensuring the patient does not incur further injury or shock
  • Keeping and creating patient records

Although paramedics can perform the same lifesaving measures as emergency medical technicians, the former can offer more advanced services like starting intravenous injections and administering shots. Paramedics undergo more extensive training than EMTs, which prepares them to treat illnesses and injuries and learn cardiology, medications, medical procedures, and human physiology.

Typical tasks include the following:

  • Responding to 911 emergency calls
  • Operating emergency vehicles, including ambulances
  • Offering emergency procedures like administering medication, clearing airways, conducting emergency tracheostomies, and using defibrillator
  • Reading and interpreting medical equipment and tests
  • Transporting patients to medical centers
  • Relaying patient details, the treatment offered, and health condition to hospital personnel upon arrival
  • Communicating with the patient and their loved ones
  • Delivering babies and helping expectant mothers in an emergency

California Emergency Medical Services Authority

The Emergency Medical Services Authority offers coordination and leadership for implementing, developing, and planning Emergency Medical Service systems throughout the state.

According to California’s Health and Safety Code 1798.200, the Emergency Medical Services Authority can investigate your off-duty and on-duty activities. The EMSA’s Enforcement Unit investigates complaints against licensed experts who violated the profession’s regulations and unlicensed personnel.

Typically, violations of EMS policies and criminal convictions are why first responders receive accusations from EMSA. A threat to your professional license is a threat to your career, livelihood, and reputation, and you should seek legal representation once you receive a Statement of Issues and a formal Accusation from your licensing board. Your lawyer will assist you in understanding the complaint against you and answer your questions.

Violations or breaches that could result in investigation and disciplinary proceedings include the following:

  • Engaging in fraud when acquiring a license or certificate related to the profession
  • Repeated negligence conduct
  • Gross negligence (Acting in the recognized standard of care egregiously or carelessly that endangers or hurts your patient. It is acting how a reasonable person in a similar situation would not do).
  • Incompetence (Lack of physical ability, skills, and knowledge required to be a paramedic or an EMT. The incompetence accusation is mainly because of the absence of the right educational background.)
  • Being convicted of a crime that is significantly associated with the qualifications, duties, and functions of prehospital employee
  • Engaging in corrupt, dishonest, or fraudulent conduct that is significantly associated with the duties, functions, and qualifications of prehospital employee
  • Breaking or trying to break directly or indirectly, or abetting and aiding the breach of, or conspiring to break, a regulation the board has adopted regarding your profession.
  • Breaching or trying to breach any federal or state regulation or statute that controls controlled substances, narcotics, or dangerous drugs
  • The excessive use of, misuse of, or addiction to narcotics, controlled substances, alcoholic beverages, or dangerous drugs
  • Working outside the supervision of your board’s medical control regulations except when another license or certification authorizes you
  • Mistreating or abusing a patient physically, leading to the application of excessive force that a reasonable and prudent individual qualified and acting in an identical capacity while executing their duties would not use when in a similar situation
  • Failing to keep your patient’s information confidential except when the law allows the disclosure
  • Engaging in any sex crime outlined in Penal Code Section 290

How EMSA Learns of Your Criminal Charges

You should report all your charges, arrests, and convictions to your licensing agency. You should call the board to analyze requirements and timeframes. Your lawyer can help you check the information for you.

Additionally, the board regularly checks with the Department of Justice's criminal records department. It allows the agency to analyze ticket, arrest, and conviction records. After the board finds the criminal record, conviction, or criminal accusation against you, EMSA will notify you of the discovery.

The DOJ can also contact your licensing agency about your criminal arrest or charge.

While you should cooperate with the board, you should not give the board information before consulting your lawyer.

What to Do During EMSA Investigations

Once you learn of the board’s investigations, consult a skilled professional license defense attorney to understand your allegation and discuss your legal options.

As a license holder, you must cooperate with the board and adhere to its requests professionally and lawfully. While you should provide the required documents, you should not discuss anything with the investigators. You should not tell the investigators anything without consulting your lawyer. The investigator can use your statements against you. Your lawyer has effective techniques for handling the investigators, ensuring adherence while safeguarding your career and rights.

What to Expect with Immediate Suspension

Under HS 1798.202a, the EMSA or local EMS agency (LEMSA) can suspend a license before a licensee’s administrative hearing after determining that:

  • The licensee has engaged in an omission or conduct that is a basis for license revocation
  • The license holder poses a pending risk to public health and safety if the board allows them to continue practicing

Suppose the LEMSA issues you an immediate suspension. In that case, the law requires the LEMSA to transmit to the EMSA every relevant piece of evidence within three days through overnight mail or facsimile. The licensing board has two (2) days after receiving the proof to decide whether the immediate suspension should continue.

If the EMSA determines the order will continue, the board has fifteen (15) days to serve you a formal accusation after receiving case evidence. The board will schedule a hearing within 30 days after you file your notice of defense. The board should impose the necessary disciplinary measures within 15 days after the administrative law judge proposes a decision.

The EMSA Guideline for Disciplinary Actions and Proceedings

The EMSA has guidelines that give consistent and equitable discipline when paramedics and EMTs violate a regulation. The board uses the guidelines to settle disciplinary cases when licensees want to resolve their accusations through negotiated agreements.

If you plead your right to challenge your accusation through the Administrative Procedure Act, the Administrative Law Judge will use the guideline to recommend the necessary disciplinary action to the board. The law allows you to share your side of the story throughout the investigation, settlement negotiation, and during your administrative hearing.

Some of the factors the ALJ considers when determining the relevant disciplinary penalty include the following:

  • Nature and severity of the violation
  • Aggravating factors
  • Your general criminal history
  • The disciplinary measure(s) your employer has taken for engaging in the violation
  • When the crime happened
  • The actual or potential threat to your patients
  • Previous disciplinary record
  • Mitigating evidence
  • Evidence of rehabilitation

The disciplinary guideline offers continuing discipline, except when the case facts justify more significant disciplinary penalties. Disciplinary actions can include fines, probation, suspension, and revocation.

The board should impose the disciplinary penalty the administrative law judge recommends, provided no aggravating or mitigating factors exist. The ALJ can propose any disciplinary penalty between minimum and maximum discipline. When the judge suggests a discipline measure less than the minimum or above the maximum, they should explain why the crime warrants consideration. The Emergency Medical Services Authority decides on the appropriate disciplinary action to take.

Your licensing board should impose a fine of $2,500 for every offense, provided the violation did not harm the patient. The board cannot impose fines if you have previously faced EMSA disciplinary action for misconduct within the last five years. The board can impose fines alongside probation except when your probationary terms require personal time, training expenses, corrective instructions, or clinical observation.

Diversion or Detoxification Program Criteria

The board considers the criteria below when determining rehabilitation for drug or alcohol abuse violations:

  • Completing an alcohol/drug treatment program. The program can integrate outpatient/inpatient and aftercare programs. Your program should have elements like random biological tests, counseling, and education about the addictive ailment.
  • A pre-hospital care provider has employed you for at least six months. You should present documentation from your employer that they knew of your prior alcohol/drug abuse challenges. The documentation should also indicate no proof of continued abuse and that you performed your job safely and professionally.
  • A year should have passed between when you committed the second crime and the effective date of the previous order.
  • If you want to reinstate your paramedic or EMT license, you must be employed for at least six months with evidence that there is no proof of drug or alcohol abuse during your employment duration.

Terms and Conditions of Probation

You should adhere to every term and condition of the probation. You should also cooperate with the licensing board during case monitoring, evaluation, and investigation. These terms include the following:

  • You should attend all evaluations, interviews, and meetings and incur costs associated with this requirement.
  • You should submit quarterly reports for every year you are certified
  • You should notify the board of your EMS employment during your probationary period. Additionally, you should send a written notice that includes the address and name of a potential employer before taking the job.
  • You should send a notification of your termination to the board. The written notice should be comprehensive, explaining your termination’s circumstances and reasons.
  • You should obey every state, local, and federal regulation, statute, law, protocol, policy, and regulation governing your practice. If you are arrested or charged with a crime, you should submit a comprehensive account of the case facts to the board within three days. 
  • Submitting random and frequent alcohol/drug screening or biological fluid testing. When the agency requires a random test, you should provide the same within twelve hours.
  • Abstaining from alcohol or drug abuse
  • Completing education coursework. The program can comprise community service to strengthen the learning objectives of your educational program. After completing your coursework, you should submit proof of competency in the education.

If you violate any of your probationary terms, the EMSA will initiate disciplinary action to terminate your probation and suspend or revoke your professional license.

Find a Competent Healthcare Professional License Defense Lawyer Near Me

As a certified first responder, it is okay to feel overwhelmed if accusations of professional misconduct are directed at you. The EMSA is tasked with investigating the matter, potentially leading to disciplinary measures. The consequences of the punitive action can considerably impact your life and career. After spending money and years to obtain the license, it is wise to seek legal representation to fight the allegations. San Jose License Attorney can review your accusations and case circumstances, develop legal defenses, and work aggressively to realize the most favorable case outcome. Since time is of the essence, call us at 408-850-3740 once you learn of the allegation so we can start building your defense.