Staffing

The primary care provider must have current emergency medical technician license or its equivalent and must have current cardiopulmonary resuscitation certification. 1. The minimum staffing for a basic life support ambulance crew when responding to a call to provide emergency medical services and transporting a patient is: a. An emergency medical service provider at or above the emergency medical technician level; and b. An emergency medical service vehicle operator. 2. For the purposes of this section, an emergency medical service provider at or above the emergency medical technician level includes an emergency medical technician, advanced emergency medical technician, or paramedic or a physician assistant, nurse practitioner, or registered nurse that has been authorized by the emergency medical service agency medical director to function as an emergency medical service provider. 3. Responding ambulance crew members may arrive at the scene separately, but the ambulance shall be fully staffed at or above the required minimum staffing level before transporting a patient. 4. Providing emergency medical service when dispatched with a higher-level emergency medical service vehicle crew. If a basic life support ambulance and a higher-level emergency medical service vehicle crew are dispatched to provide emergency medical services for a patient, the following shall apply: a. Basic life support ambulance crew members shall begin providing emergency medical services to the patient at their skill levels, including transportation of the patient to a receiving facility if the ambulance crew determines transport is needed, until a higher level of emergency medical services is afforded by the arrival of a higher-level emergency medical service provider. b. Upon the arrival of a higher-level emergency medical service vehicle crew, the basic life support ambulance shall continue transporting the patient or release the patient to be transported by the higher-level emergency medical service vehicle crew, consistent with local emergency medical service protocols, as directed by the emergency medical service provider exercising primary responsibility for the patient. c. The basic life support ambulance crew shall reassume primary responsibility for the patient if that responsibility is relinquished back to that ambulance crew by the emergency medical service provider of the higher-level emergency medical service vehicle crew who had assumed primary responsibility for the patient. d. A basic life support ambulance and its ambulance crew may transport from a receiving facility a patient who requires emergency medical services above the skill level at which the ambulance is operating, if the sending or a receiving facility provides a registered nurse, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or physician to supplement the ambulance crew, that individual brings on board the ambulance equipment and supplies to provide the patient with emergency medical services above the emergency medical service level at which the basic life support ambulance is operating to attend to the emergency medical services needs of the patient during the transport, and that individual attends to the patient during the patient transport. 5. Application. For purposes of this section, the term "higher-level of emergency medical service" means the emergency medical service vehicle crew of a basic life support ambulance performing advanced life support interventions as defined in section 33-11-02-06, an advanced life support ambulance, or air ambulance.