Oklahoma City Municipal Code § 6-1 Definitions.
§ 6-1. - Definitions.
The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this Code, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:
(1) Ambulance means any ground, air or water vehicle which is designed and equipped to transport a patient or patients and to provide appropriate on-scene and/or enroute patient stabilization and care to or from health care facilities.
(2) Ambulance response time standards means: For all jurisdictions except the Eastern Division non-beneficiary jurisdictions:
priority 1 | 10 minutes 59 seconds
priority 2 | 24 minutes 59 seconds
priority 3 | 60 minutes 0 seconds
priority 4 | 20 minutes 0 seconds*
(*after agreed-upon pickup appointment)
For Eastern Division non-beneficiary jurisdictions:
priority 1 | 10 minutes 59 seconds
priority 2 | 24 minutes 59 seconds
priority 3 | 60 minutes 0 seconds
priority 4 | 20 minutes 0 seconds*
(*after agreed-upon pickup appointment)
(3) Ambulance service means a person or organization, governmental or private, which operates one or more ambulances as defined herein for purposes of transporting a patient or patients and to provide appropriate on-scene and/or enroute stabilization and care to or from health care facilities.
(4) Amended and Restated Trust Indenture means the Second Amended and Restated Trust Indenture for the Emergency Medical Services Authority dated October 25, 2022 and any amendments thereto.
(5) Contract for special arrangements means a contract between EMSA and a beneficiary or non-beneficiary member jurisdiction which defines the terms of any special arrangements which have been agreed regarding subsidy, fee schedules, response times and supplemental ambulance services. If the contract for special arrangements provides for supplemental ambulance services, it shall detail the operational response plan for the supplemental service provider, resource deployment, delineation of command authority, reporting requirements, compensation, if any, between EMSA and the supplemental service provider, and such other provisions as deemed appropriate for the efficient and cost effective delivery of ambulance services within the regulated service area.
(6) Supplemental service provider means any beneficiary member jurisdiction or non-beneficiary member jurisdiction within the regulated service area that maintains its own ground ambulance license and maintains a contract for special arrangements with EMSA for the provision of supplemental ambulance services within the boundaries of the municipality or district of such beneficiary or non-beneficiary member jurisdiction.
(7) On-line medical control physician means an emergency department or destination facility based physician licensed to practice medicine in the State of Oklahoma, from whom ambulance and emergency medical response agency personnel may take medical direction by radio or other remote communications device.
(8) Beneficiary member jurisdiction means The City of Tulsa and The City of Oklahoma City.
(9) Eastern Division means that portion of the regulated service area which is located east of The City of Stroud.
(10) Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) means the trust established by The City of Tulsa, pursuant to 60 O.S. § 176 et seq., as amended and whose beneficiaries are, jointly, The City of Tulsa and The City of Oklahoma City, and which is established to provide ambulance services to the cities of Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and other jurisdictions within the regulated service area.
(11) Emergency call means a request for ambulance service by or for a patient whose apparent condition, at the time the call is received, presumptively meets the criteria for classification as priority 1 or priority 2, when classified in accordance with telephone algorithms and medical priority dispatch protocols approved by the Medical Control Board.
(12) Emergency medical personnel/EMS personnel means those persons who participate directly in the performance of one or more emergency medical services and are certified or licensed by the Oklahoma State Department of Health and credentialed by the Medical Director in the EMSA system.
(13) Emergency medical services (EMS) means the following prehospital and interhospital services:
a. Access and coordination. The answering and processing of telephone requests from the public for ambulance or first responder services, and including EMS dispatching, emergency and routine; the giving of medical prearrival instructions to callers by telephone; but excluding the process of 9-1-1 complaint-taking when the caller is immediately transferred to an EMS control center;
b. Emergency Medical Responder services. Those emergency services, which are performed by an emergency medical response agency within the regulated service area and credentialed by the Medical Director;
c. Medical transportation. Ambulance services, both emergency and non-emergency, including patient assessment, transportation, and medical procedures performed on-scene, en route, during interfacility transport, at an emergency receiving facility when performed at the request of the receiving physician, or non-emergency transfer; and
d. On-line medical direction. Instructions given by on-line medical control physicians to Emergency medical responders or ambulance personnel at the scene of an emergency, while en route to a hospital, or during an interfacility patient transfer.
(14) Emergency Physicians Foundation (EPF) means that administrative agency established jointly by this and other jurisdictions which have approved the EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement, pursuant to the Interlocal Cooperation Act (74 O.S. § 1001 et seq.), as amended and have adopted this Uniform Code for Emergency Medical Services.
(15) EMS control center (or "control center") means either of two facilities operated by EMSA, one of which serves as central EMS communications center for the Eastern Division, and the other of which serves as central EMS communications center for the Western Division. EMSA may, when an emergency declaration is made by the EMSA Board of Trustees or its CEO in order to avoid loss of life or damage to public peace and safety or in order to maintain operation continuity, consolidate the operations of the two EMS control centers to create a single EMS control center to serve the entire regulated service area until such time as the emergency declaration has been rescinded by the EMSA Board of Trustees, or upon cessation of the circumstances which required operational continuity changes. The EMSA Board of Trustees shall meet at its first opportunity following a written request for rescission from a beneficiary member jurisdiction to consider rescinding the emergency declaration.
(16) EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement means that certain agreement titled Amended and Restated EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement and approved by the governing body of the beneficiary member jurisdictions.
(17) Emergency Medical Dispatcher (EMD) means a person credentialed by the Medical Director as trained and competent to properly employ telephone algorithms, medical priority dispatching protocols, and prearrival instructions approved by the Medical Control Board, and to operate the EMS control center's computer-aided dispatch system in accordance with the system status plan, so as to maintain the best possible ambulance coverage of the regulated service area, given the remaining resources available at any point in time.
(18) Emergency Medical Response Agency (EMRA) means an organization of any type company, or governmental entity certified by the Oklahoma State Department of Health to provide emergency medical care and limited transport in an emergency vehicle as defined in Section 1-103 of Title 49 of the Oklahoma Statutes. A certified emergency medical response agency shall only provide transport upon approval by the Medical Director or his/her clinical staff at the time of transport and upon a determination that a licensed ambulance provider is not readily available. Certified emergency medical response agencies may utilize certified emergency medical personnel; provided, however, that all personnel so utilized shall function under the direction of and consistent with transport protocols and other guidelines as required by the Medical Director.
(19) Emergency Medical Responder (EMR) means any person, fire department unit, law enforcement unit, or non-transporting rescue unit certified by the Oklahoma State Department of Health capable of providing appropriate emergency medical responder service, under the auspices of an Emergency Medical Response Agency.
(20) Ground ambulance license means a license issued by the Oklahoma State Department of Health for the provision of basic, intermediate, advanced or paramedic life support ambulance services.
(21) Medical Control Board means that body of 11 physicians established jointly by this and other jurisdictions pursuant to the EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement and this Code for purposes of providing medical supervision, monitoring, and regulation as described in the Amended and Restated EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement.
(22) Medical Director/Chief Medical Officer (CMO) means the licensed physician appointed by the Medical Control Board to perform the duties and responsibilities granted and ascribed to the Medical Director herein and in the EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement, which includes authorizing certified and licensed emergency medical personnel to perform procedures and interventions detailed in the medical protocols.
(23) Medical protocol means any diagnosis-specific or problem-oriented written statement of standard procedure, or algorithm, promulgated by the Medical Director and approved by the Medical Control Board as the medically appropriate standard of prehospital care for a given clinical condition.
(24) Mutual aid agreement means a written agreement between EMSA and a primary provider of ambulance services in an adjoining community to the regulated service area, whereby the signing parties agree to lend emergency aid to one another subject to conditions and terms specified in the agreement.
(25) Non-beneficiary member jurisdictions means jurisdictions that are not beneficiary member jurisdictions as defined herein, including municipalities, counties, EMS districts, ambulance districts, school districts, Indian Nations, or other governmental entities that elect to contract with EMSA in order to be included in the regulated service area upon such terms which are mutually agreeable to EMSA and which approves and signs the EMS Interlocal Agreement.
(26) Operations contract means any contract awarded by EMSA by competitive bid award for provision of any ambulance services throughout the regulated service area, but does not include a contract for special arrangements with beneficiary member jurisdictions and non-beneficiary member jurisdictions.
(27) Operations contractor(s) means the person(s) or firm(s) contracted by EMSA pursuant to an operations contract.
(28) Patient means any human being that has a complaint suggestive of potential illness or injury, requests evaluation for potential illness or injury, has obvious evidence of illness or injury, or has experienced an acute event that could reasonably lead to illness or injury and who may need transportby ambulance, as determined in accordance with applicable provisions of the system standard of care.
(29) Person means and includes any individual, firm, association, partnership, corporation, or other group or combination acting as a unit.
(30) Presumptive priority classification means the designation by an emergency medical dispatcher (EMD) of a request for service as priority 1, 2, 3, or 4, in accordance with telephone algorithms and medical priority dispatching protocols approved by the Medical Control Board.
(31) Priority means the call priority number (i.e., priority 1, 2, 3, or 4) assigned to every request for service received by an EMS control center. Such priorities shall be assigned only by a credentialed EMD, pursuant to telephone algorithms and priority dispatch protocols established by the Medical Director and approved by the Medical Control Board. Classifications shall be consistent with the following definitions:
a. Priority 1 call means a presumptively classified life-threatening emergency call;
b. Priority 2 call means a presumptively classified non-life-threatening emergency call;
c. Priority 3 call means a presumptively classified request for routine patient transport scheduled less than 24 hours in advance of the requested time of pick-up or an unscheduled, nonemergency request for service; and
d. Priority 4 call means a presumptively classified request for routine patient transport scheduled 24 hours or more in advance of the requested time of pickup.
(32) Quality assurance fund means the fund account which is established pursuant to the EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement and, concurrently, by adoption of this Code, and which is administered by EMSA on behalf of the Medical Control Board, and which shall be used solely to fund the activities and related expenses of the Medical Control Board in carrying out its duties and responsibilities as set forth herein and in the EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement.
(33) Regional EMS system means that network of organizations, individuals, facilities, and equipment which provides emergency medical services, as defined herein, to jurisdictions within the regulated service area, subject to the system standard of care approved by the Medical Control Board.
(34) Regulated service area means the combined area which is contained within the boundaries of the municipalities, ambulance districts, EMS districts, school districts, Indian Nations, and other governmental entities which make up the beneficiary member jurisdictions and non-beneficiary member jurisdictions.
(35) Ambulance Response time means the actual elapsed time between receipt by the EMS control center of the call and the arrival of a permitted ambulance or mutual aid ambulance at the scene of the incident. For scheduled nonemergency (priority 4) requests, "scheduled time of pick up" shall be substituted for the "time call received" in the response time calculation.
(36) Emergency Medical Responder Response time means the actual elapsed time between notification of the emergency medical response agency by the EMS control center that an emergency medical response unit is needed at a given location, and the arrival of an emergency medical response unit at the incident scene.
(37) Non-emergency call means a request for ambulance service by or for a patient whose apparent condition, at the time the call is received, presumptively meets the criteria for classification as priority 3 or priority 4, when classified in accordance with telephone algorithms and medical priority dispatch protocols approved by the Medical Control Board.
(38) Special events ambulance standby service means the positioning of an ambulance and crew at the location of a publicly or privately sponsored event.
(39) Sub-area is a section of the Eastern Division's beneficiary member jurisdiction or the Western Division's beneficiary member jurisdiction drawn so as to divide the service area into three geographical areas for the purpose of equalizing response times within the area.
(40) System standard of care means the written body of standards, policies, and protocols governing all clinical aspects of the EMS system, which is approved by the Medical Control Board and which is developed and periodically updated in accordance with procedures set forth in the EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement. As used in this context, system standard of care is a comprehensive term including:
a. Input standards including but not limited to personnel credentialing requirements, training requirements, equipment specifications, on-board inventory requirements, and other requirements which the system must fulfill before receipt of a request for service;
b. Performance standards including but not limited to medical priority dispatching protocols and prearrival instructions, medical protocols, standing orders, response time standards, protocols governing authority for on-scene control of patient care, and other performance specifications describing how the system should behave upon receipt of a request for service; and
c. Outcome standards are results the system intends to achieve by meeting its input and performance standards.
(41) System status plan means the plan and protocols for staffing, deployment, and redeployment of ambulances which is developed and implemented by EMSA as to all ambulance service providers within the regulated service area, in order to meet response time compliance. The system status plan specifies how many ambulances will be staffed and available within the regulated service area each hour of the day, each day of the week, including the locations of available ambulances (not assigned to calls) within the regulated service area, specified separately for each hour of the day, for each day of the week, and every remaining number of ambulances then available in the system, and including protocols for event-driven redeployment of those remaining ambulances.
(42) Western Division means that portion of the regulated service area which is located west of Stroud, and which may include the City of Stroud subject to requirements set forth in the EMS Interlocal Cooperation Agreement.
(Code 1980, § 6-100; Ord. No. 19392, § 1, 4-3-90; Ord. No. 20997, § 1, 2-17-98; Ord. No. 23873, § 1, 6-16-09; Ord. No. 24756, § 1, 10-1-13; Ord. No. 27211, § 1, 11-8-22, eff. 12-1-22)