What’s happening: On June 23, the Office of Administrative Law approved the Emergency Medical Services Authority’s (EMSA’s) emergency regulations to implement Assembly Bill (AB) 40 (2023), establishing standards, protocols, and tools to improve ambulance patient offload times (APOTs) within California’s emergency medical services system.
What else to know: Hospitals must submit their APOT reduction protocol to EMSA annually by June 30. This year, the deadline did not allow ample time for submission, but hospitals should submit to the best of their ability as soon as possible to remain in compliance (EMSA’s updated checklist is on page 14 of the emergency regulation package).
The emergency regulations will remain in effect for 180 days, with the possibility of two 90-day extensions. Later this year, EMSA will undertake the regular rulemaking process — including a longer comment period — to develop permanent regulations.
