AN ACT Relating to personnel for ambulance service interfacility specialty care transports;
HB2110 updates Washington law governing ambulance service personnel for interfacility specialty care transports, which are transports between medical facilities for critically ill or injured patients who need a higher level of care during transfer. The bill adds and clarifies definitions for emergency medical services terms, including advanced life support, basic life support, interfacility transport, specialty care transport, patient care procedures, and stretcher, and it creates a new section stating the Legislature’s intent to maintain minimum standards and training for emergency responders while improving timely and safe specialty care transfers when workforce shortages would otherwise hinder transport.
The bill amends RCW provisions to specify staffing requirements for ambulances and to create a narrower exception allowing a registered nurse, rather than a paramedic, to provide care during an interfacility specialty care transport under defined conditions. Those conditions include having at least one EMT in the ambulance, the nurse having appropriate competencies, no paramedic being available to respond, and the sending hospital not having a registered nurse with EMT certification available. The bill also requires the nurse to work under physician medical direction, within nursing scope of practice, and with confirmation that the nurse is familiar with the ambulance’s equipment and supplies before participating in the transport.
The bill changes state law by amending RCW 18.73 and related ambulance staffing provisions to expressly authorize registered nurses to staff certain interfacility specialty care transports when specified staffing shortages exist. It also codifies a set of definitions that will apply throughout the chapter, which may affect ambulance services, hospitals, emergency medical technicians, registered nurses, and the Department of Health in how they interpret and enforce staffing and transport standards.
The voting record shows strong and unanimous support at every stage, with no recorded opposition in either chamber or in committee. The bill passed the House committee, House floor, Senate committee with amendment(s), Senate floor, and final House concurrence by large margins, suggesting broad agreement that the measure addresses a practical workforce and patient-transfer problem in emergency medical transport.
There is little visible contention in the available record, likely because the bill is framed as a targeted staffing flexibility measure rather than a broad policy change. The main policy issue embedded in the text is balancing patient safety and minimum EMS standards against workforce limitations; the bill addresses that by limiting nurse participation to specialty care transports and requiring EMT presence, appropriate competencies, physician oversight, and equipment familiarity. Any concern would most likely come from stakeholders focused on scope of practice, ambulance staffing standards, or patient safety during interfacility transfers, but no opposing arguments are reflected in the provided materials.