State Medical Association gets run down in ambulance reform debate

Crisis in rural EMS forcing state to promote regulation changes

Photo by Miles Loewen on Unsplash

The state’s largest organization representing physicians lost a bid in the Legislature to stop sweeping reforms to South Dakota’s ambulance regulations.

The South Dakota State Medical Association lobbied hard against a pair of bills that expand the roles of highly trained but non-physician health providers. The new regulations would allow nurse practitioners and physician assistants to serve as medical directors for licensed ambulance services.

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The reforms are sponsored by the South Dakota Department of Health and have the backing of the emergency services industry, in part because they are attempting to shore up ambulance providers in rural areas of the state that are struggling.

The proposed regulations would require ambulance services to have a medical director. Currently, that’s not a requirement, but when they do have one, medical directors can only be physicians. That would change to enable nurse practitioners and physician assistants to fill those roles.

“Because in our local clinics, the docs don’t come out anymore,” said Maynard Konechne, who represents the South Dakota Emergency Services Association.

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