POLICY STATEMENT:

The following guidelines have been established to assist the ECRN or the Medical Control Physician in the proper procedure of recording all in-bound, pre-hospital patient care information. The purpose for recording all calls is two-fold. First, to seek Continuous Quality Improvement through retrospective evaluation of out-of-hospital care and secondly, to validate patient care in cases of litigation.

GOAL/PURPOSE:

To ensure tape recording of all patient care information given via radio and cellular telephone communications and provide operational guidance to the ECRN and Medical Control Physician.

POLICY/PROCEDURE:

1. All cellular telephone EMT-I calls and M.E.R.C.I. radio communications at the Operational Medical Control Points shall be recorded.

2. The RECORD and PLAY buttons are to be pushed down at all times for automatic recording.

3. Cassette tapes shall be labeled appropriately and shall be inserted, ready for recording.

4. All communication where patient information was received and Medical Control provided verbal orders shall be documented in the MIC Register.

5. If a "BEEPING" noise is emitted from either recorder, it is indicating the end of the tape or the record and play buttons need to be pushed down.

6. Any failure in the communications system, requires the completion of an "EMS System Incident Report" and forwarding the report to the respective EMS System Coordinator.