Bill Text: NJ A1098 | 2012-2013 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Establishes mutual aid assistance request protocols for 9-1-1 ambulance dispatchers.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2013-04-15 - Received in the Senate, Referred to Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee [A1098 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2012-A1098-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
215th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2012 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman ANNETTE QUIJANO
District 20 (Union)
SYNOPSIS
Establishes mutual aid assistance request protocols for 9-1-1 ambulance dispatchers.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
An Act concerning emergency response and supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. It shall be a standard operating procedure for 9-1-1 dispatchers to call for mutual aid assistance whenever a basic life support ambulance provider fails to inform the dispatcher within 10 minutes that the ambulance provider is actively responding. A dispatcher shall issue at lease one additional call approximately five minutes following the initial call to ensure that the ambulance provider has received the call. Nothing herein shall be construed to preclude the adoption of a standard operating procedure that mandates a dispatcher to issue a call for mutual aid assistance within a time frame of less than 10 minutes or issue more than one additional call when a basic life support ambulance provider fails to respond to an emergency response call.
b. Upon any such failure to respond, the dispatcher shall issue a mutual aid assistance call to a different basic life support ambulance provider, but shall also re-alert the service provider initially called. If the service provider initially called affirms that it is en route or is otherwise actively responding to the emergency response call, the service provider shall advise the dispatcher whether or not to cancel the request for mutual aid assistance.
c. If a provider fails to respond to an emergency response call and, as a consequence, mutual aid assistance is required to service the emergency, that provider shall be concurrently dispatched with a mutual aid basic life support ambulance provider on all emergency calls until:
(1) the provider, through prior notice, affirms that it has sufficient staffing available to respond to any request for emergency assistance within 10 minutes; or
(2) the provider responds to an emergency call. If the provider responds to an emergency call, the service provider shall advise the dispatcher whether or not to cancel the request for mutual aid assistance.
2. This act shall take effect on the first day of the third month following enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill establishes a standard operating procedure for 9-1-1 dispatchers that requires them to call for mutual aid assistance within 10 minutes if the basic life support ambulance service provider initially called does not respond.
Under the provisions of the bill, the ambulance service provider initially called to an emergency must notify the dispatcher that it is actively responding within 10 minutes. The dispatcher must issue at least one additional call approximately five minutes following the initial call to ensure that the ambulance service provider received the initial call. If the ambulance service provider fails to respond, the dispatcher is required to issue a mutual aid assistance call to a different ambulance service provider, and re-alert the service provider that was initially called. The ambulance service provider that was initially called is required to advise the dispatcher whether or not to cancel the request for mutual aid assistance, if the service provider is en route or is actively responding to the emergency call.
Finally, the bill provides that an ambulance provider who fails to respond to a dispatched call is to be concurrently contacted with a mutual aid basic life support ambulance on all emergency calls until the ambulance provider affirms that it has proper staffing or until it responds to an emergency call and advises the dispatcher to cancel mutual aid.
