Substitute Senate Bill No. 318 PUBLIC
ACT NO. 98-62
AN ACT CONCERNING
GOOD SAMARITAN IMMUNITY FOR AUTOMATIC EXTERNAL
DEFIBRILLATOR USE BY A PERSON WITH PROPER TRAINING.
Be it enacted by the
Senate and House
of Representatives in General Assembly convened:
Section 1. Subsection
(a) of section 52-557b of the
general statutes is
repealed and the
following is substituted in lieu
thereof:
(a) A person licensed to practice medicine and surgery under
the provisions of
chapter 370 or
dentistry under the provisions
of section 20-106 or members of
the same professions
licensed to
practice in any other state of the United States, a person
licensed as a registered nurse
under
section 20-93 or 20-94 or certified as a licensed practical
nurse under section 20-96 or 20-97, AS
AMENDED, a
medical technician or
any person operating a
cardiopulmonary
resuscitator or a
person trained in
cardiopulmonary resuscitation OR IN THE USE
OF AN AUTOMATIC EXTERNAL DEFIBRILLATOR in accordance with the standards set forth by the American Red
Cross or American Heart Association,
who, voluntarily and gratuitously and other than in the ordinary course
of his employment or
practice, renders emergency medical or professional assistance to a
person in need thereof, shall not be
liable to such
person assisted for civil
damages for any
personal
injuries which result from
acts or omissions by such person
in rendering the emergency care, which
may constitute ordinary negligence.
The immunity provided in this subsection does not apply to acts
or omissions constituting gross, wilful or wanton negligence. FOR
THE PURPOSES OF THIS SUBSECTION, "AUTOMATIC EXTERNAL DEFIBRILLATOR" MEANS A DEVICE THAT: (1) IS USED TO ADMINISTER AN ELECTRIC SHOCK THROUGH
THE CHEST WALL TO THE HEART; (2)
CONTAINS INTERNAL DECISION-MAKING
ELECTRONICS, MICROCOMPUTERS OR SPECIAL
SOFTWARE THAT ALLOWS IT TO
INTERPRET PHYSIOLOGIC
SIGNALS, MAKE MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS AND, IF NECESSARY,
APPLY THERAPY; (3) GUIDES THE
USER THROUGH THE PROCESS OF USING THE DEVICE BY AUDIBLE OR VISUAL PROMPTS; AND (4) DOES NOT REQUIRE
THE USER TO EMPLOY ANY DISCRETION OR JUDGMENT IN ITS USE.
Sec. 2. Section 19a-175
of the general statutes, as amended
by section 15 of public act
97-311, is
repealed and the
following is substituted in
lieu thereof:
As used in this chapter:
(1) "Emergency medical service system" means a system which provides for the
arrangement of personnel, facilities
and equipment for
the efficient, effective and
coordinated delivery of health
care services under emergency conditions;
(2) "Patient" means
an injured, ill, crippled or
physically handicapped
person requiring assistance and transportation;
(3)
"Ambulance" means a
motor vehicle specifically
designed to carry patients;
(4) "Ambulance service" means an organization which transports patients;
(5) "Emergency medical
technician" means an individual who has successfully completed the
training requirements established by the Commissioner of Public Health
and has been
certified by the Department of
Public Health;
(6) "Ambulance driver" means a person whose primary function is driving an
ambulance;
(7) "Emergency medical
technician instructor" means a person who is certified by the Department
of Public Health to teach courses, the completion of which are
required in order
to become an
emergency medical technician;
(8)
"Communications
facility" means any facility housing the personnel
and equipment for
handling the emergency communications needs of a particular geographic area;
(9) "Life saving
equipment" means equipment used by emergency medical
personnel for the
stabilization and treatment of
patients;
(10) "Emergency medical
service organization" means any organization whether public, private or
voluntary which offers
transportation or treatment services to patients under emergency conditions;
(11) "Invalid
coach" means a
vehicle used exclusively for
the transportation of
nonambulatory patients, who are
not confined to stretchers, to
or from either a medical facility
or the patient's home
in nonemergency situations or utilized in emergency situations as a backup
vehicle when
insufficient emergency vehicles exist;
(12) "Rescue service" means any organization, whether profit or nonprofit, whose primary
purpose
is to search for
persons who have become lost or to render emergency service to persons who are in
dangerous or perilous
circumstances;
(13) "Provider"
means any person, corporation or organization, whether profit or
nonprofit,
whose primary purpose is
to deliver medical care or services, including such related medical care
services as ambulance
transportation;
(14) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Public
Health acting through
the Office of
Emergency Medical Services;
(15)
"Paramedic" means a
person licensed pursuant to
section 11 of [this act] PUBLIC ACT
97-311;
(16) "Commercial ambulance service" means an
ambulance service which primarily
operates for
profit;
(17)
"Licensed ambulance service" means a commercial
ambulance service issued a license by
the Office of Emergency
Medical Services or any
volunteer or municipal ambulance
service issued a
license by
the Office of
Emergency Medical Services prior
to July 1, 1981;
(18) "Certified ambulance
services" means a municipal or volunteer ambulance service issued a
certificate by the Office
of Emergency Medical Services; [and]
(19)
"Management
service" means an organization which provides emergency
medical
technicians or paramedics to any entity including an ambulance
service but does
not include a
commercial ambulance
service or a volunteer or municipal ambulance service; and
(20) "AUTOMATIC EXTERNAL
DEFIBRILLATOR" MEANS A
DEVICE THAT: (A) IS
USED TO ADMINISTER
AN ELECTRIC SHOCK THROUGH THE
CHEST WALL TO
THE HEART; (B) CONTAINS
INTERNAL DECISION-MAKING
ELECTRONICS, ICROCOMPUTERS OR SPECIAL
SOFTWARE THAT ALLOWS IT TO INTERPRET PHYSIOLOGIC SIGNALS,
MAKE MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS AND,
IF NECESSARY, APPLY THERAPY; (C)
GUIDES THE USER THROUGH THE PROCESS OF USING THE DEVICE BY AUDIBLE OR VISUAL PROMPTS;
AND (D) DOES NOT
REQUIRE THE USER TO EMPLOY ANY
DISCRETION OR JUDGMENT IN ITS USE.
Sec. 3. (NEW) (a) Any
person in possession of an automatic external
defibrillator shall provide
notice of the location
of such defibrillator to the
Office of Emergency Medical Services.
(b) The Office of Emergency Medical Services shall establish
a registry of automatic external
defibrillators located
within the state and shall establish a
procedure facilitating the use of the
enhanced 9-1-1 service, as defined in
section 28-25 of the general statutes, for the location of
such defibrillator nearest to
the caller.
(c) The
Commissioner of Public
Health may adopt regulations in accordance with
the
provisions of chapter 54
of the general statutes to
implement the purposes
of the registry
established by this section.
Approved May 19, 1998