Events

The Seventh Annual Widener University Commonwealth Law School Emergency Medical Services Law and Policy Symposium

Overview

The Seventh Annual EMS Law and Policy Symposium at Widener Law Commonwealth will focus on the survival and sustainability of EMS systems throughout the United States. The traditional model of rapid deployment and emergency department transport for nearly all EMS patients has become both unsustainable and inconsistent with a growing body of clinical evidence that supports the need for new models, methods, and modalities in EMS and mobile healthcare.

Legal barriers, both real and perceived, often stand in the way of effective and efficient EMS delivery. For example, misconceptions about legal duties of care may prevent pre-dispatch dispositions for low-acuity 911 calls. Outdated notions of patient abandonment can hinder treat-in-place or telehealth models. Misinterpretations of EMTALA lead EMS agencies to waste countless unit hours waiting to transfer care in emergency departments. State-level limitations on EMS clinicians’ scope of practice can also stall community paramedicine and mobile integrated healthcare programs.

This year’s symposium aims to build a valid legal framework for EMS system transformation and “set the legal table” for innovation in the field.

Please register on Eventbrite to attend

Participants are eligible to receive up to 3.5 Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits [2.5 substantive, 1 ethics].

Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions.

This program is co-sponsored by the Widener Law Commonwealth Law and Government Institute, Page, Wolfberg & Wirth, LLC, the Ambulance Association of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Fire and Emergency Services Institute.