Douglas Wolfberg

EMS has progressed and evolved, but, unfortunately, so have the types of legal liability that EMS clinicians, leaders, and agencies can face. Most EMS clinicians consider the possibility of a malpractice suit, but few contemplate the possibility of criminal liability for their actions. In addition, state EMS oversight agencies are actively imposing administrative liability including license suspensions, revocations, and other sanctions. EMS clinicians and leaders must be keenly aware of all of the types of potential liability—civil, criminal and administrative—that are inherent in the provision of EMS. Other fundamental EMS legal issues will be addressed in this workshop, including the law of patient abandonment, ambulance patient ED offload and when the legal duty of care transfers from EMS to the hospital, the law of patient consent and self determination, and withholding or termination of resuscitation, among other topics. The workshop includes actual legal case studies to make the concepts more practical and relatable to the participants.

EMS clinician apathy can lead to devastating patient outcomes. But when it's caught on camera, it can also have major legal ramifications for EMS professionals. Using case studies where spectacular failures of empathy were followed by bad patient outcomes, you'll learn how attorneys and prosecutors have used these videos against EMS clinicians, in both civil and criminal cases. You'll also see a high-risk, bad outcome case that was similarly caught on video, but where no lawsuits or criminal charges resulted. Importantly, we'll compare these cases and learn the important lessons they offer for all EMS professionals going forward to reduce legal liability while improving patient care.