(a) Findings and purpose.
(1) The city incurs significant expense related to the health emergencies of its citizens. Fire department paramedics are especially skilled at providing certain emergency medical services. Many of the emergency medical services provided by fire department paramedics are beneficial in the transport of sick or injured persons, as well as in responding to a person’s perceived need for immediate medical care.
(2) The city’s mobile community healthcare program is designed to:
(A) support efficient and effective emergency medical services within the city;
(B) provide health education to residents;
(C) assess living environments that may be dangerous or detrimental to a citizen’s health and could contribute to an emergency situation; and
(D) respond to certain emergency medical situations by providing vaccinations and immunizations.
(3) The mobile community healthcare program is also intended to promote health and safety by referring mobile healthcare program participants to appropriate professionals and organizations in the community.
(4) Because police and fire personnel encounter many individuals while performing their duties, protecting those personnel from communicable diseases using appropriate vaccines or immunizations reduces the spread of such diseases and reduces the number of personnel unavailable to protect the safety of the public.
(b) General provisions.
(1) Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 773, as amended, and Title 22 of the Texas Administrative Code Chapter 197, as amended, authorize fire department paramedics that are supervised by a physician licensed to practice medicine in Texas to provide emergency medical services.
(2) Under the mobile community healthcare program, fire department paramedics that are under the supervision of a physician licensed to practice medicine in Texas may use emergency medical services vehicles to provide emergency medical services, including immunization and vaccinations, to:
(A) individuals that meet criteria established by the director;
(B) individuals identified through a contract executed under Paragraph (5) below; and
(C) police and fire personnel.
(3) The director shall promulgate standard operating procedures regarding emergency medical services provided by fire department paramedics as part of the mobile community healthcare program.
(4) A physician licensed to practice medicine in Texas shall develop, implement, and revise protocols and standing delegation orders regarding emergency medical services provided by the fire department paramedics as part of the mobile community healthcare program.
(5) The city may enter into contracts with hospitals within Dallas city limits authorizing fire department paramedics, through the mobile community healthcare program, to provide emergency medical services to certain individuals who reside in the city, meet criteria established by a contract, and are designated by the contracting hospital. These contracts with hospitals must:
(A) require that any emergency medical services provided by the fire department paramedics shall be provided under the supervision of the individual’s treating physician or the appropriate hospital medical staff and through the exercise of the supervising physician’s independent medical judgment;
(B) require that the hospital develop treatment protocols for their discharged individuals receiving emergency medical services from fire department paramedics through the mobile community healthcare program, and that those treatment protocols are deemed by the medical director to be within the scope of the fire department paramedics’ certification;
(C) require that any medications prescribed to individuals participating in the mobile community healthcare program will be prescribed by the individual’s treating physician or the appropriate hospital medical staff based on the prescribing physician’s relationship with the individual; and
(D) be reviewed and approved as to form by the compliance officer and director of risk management before consideration by city council.
(6) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to restrict a physician from delegating administrative and technical or clinical tasks not involving the exercise of independent medical judgment to those specifically trained individuals instructed and directed by a licensed physician who accepts responsibility for the acts of such allied health personnel. Further, nothing shall be construed to relieve the supervising physician of the professional or legal responsibility for the care and treatment of his or her patients.
(c) Fees. The city shall charge a $252 per hour fee to hospitals utilizing emergency medical services in the city to provide mobile community healthcare. (Ord. Nos. 29544; 31332, eff. 10/1/19)