§1134. Ambulance Patient Offload Delay Collaborative

            A. The legislature finds and declares all of the following:

            (1) The emergency medical services system (EMS) and hospitals and their emergency departments are critical components of Louisiana's emergency healthcare delivery system.

            (2) Ambulances throughout the United States and in many other countries are experiencing significant delays in offloading patients into hospital emergency departments.

            (3) The cause of the delay is multifaceted and may include factors such as high demand on emergency departments, hospital staffing challenges, hospital throughput procedures, and hospital administrative policies.

            (4) Extended ambulance patient offload times are disruptive to the EMS system by taking the ambulance out of service and decreasing advanced life support services in the community, which increases healthcare costs and can back up the entire continuum of emergency health care.

            (5) Hospitals and EMS personnel are all acting in the best interest of the patient and agree that providing the best possible patient care is the goal despite offload delay challenges.

            (6) It is imperative that ambulance providers and hospitals collaborate to develop statewide, regional, or local plans to address the problem of ambulance patient offload delays.

            B.(1) There is hereby created within the Louisiana Department of Health, bureau of emergency medical services, the Ambulance Patient Offload Delay Collaborative which shall analyze and develop solutions to the problem of ambulance patient offload delays.

            (2) The bureau of emergency medial services shall facilitate discussions and meetings of a statewide collaborative to include the bureau, the Louisiana Hospital Association, the Louisiana Ambulance Alliance, and other appropriate stakeholders as considered necessary by the collaborative.

            (3) The collaborative shall hold its first meeting on or before October 1, 2024, and shall meet as often as is necessary to fulfill the requirement of this Section.

            (4) The collaborative shall be responsible for all of the following:

            (a) Reviewing the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) to clearly understand the rights and responsibilities of ambulance service providers and hospitals.

            (b) Collecting and reviewing currently available data from emergency medical services and hospitals concerning ambulance patient offload times.

            (c) Developing a set of data collection guidelines and performance measures, as well as a standardized reporting process, to identify and track hospitals that exceed the established industry standards for patient offload delays. These standards should be based on best practices and prioritize patient welfare and safety.

            (d) Exploring enacted legislation and best practices and policies in other states and countries that have been successful and promising in resolving or improving ambulance patient offload delays through processes that may be implemented locally or on a regional or statewide scale.

            (e) Exploring and researching options for reducing demand on hospital emergency departments from individuals transported by ambulance services, specifically treatment-in-place ambulance services and ambulance transports to alternative destinations other than hospital emergency departments for low acuity patients utilizing the 911 system. Research shall include payment mechanisms and funding options for services provided to patients which reduce emergency department demands.

            (f) Proposing a format for facilitating local collaborative communications between ambulance service providers and hospital administrators.

            C.(1) The collaborative shall prepare a report summarizing its findings and recommendations, including any data collected in accordance with this Section, for submission by the department to the House and Senate committees on health and welfare by February 1, 2025.

            (2) The collaborative may continue to meet as necessary after submitting the final report required in Paragraph (1) of this Subsection. If the collaborative continues to meet, it shall submit an annual report to the House and Senate committees on health and welfare by February first of each year.

            D. The department may promulgate rules in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act to carry out the provisions of this Section.

            Acts 2024, No. 691, §2.