To amend sections 4765.36 and 4765.361 of the Revised Code to revise the law governing emergency medical technicians and the performance of certain medical services in hospitals.
HB398 revises Ohio law governing when emergency medical technicians (EMT-basics, EMT-intermediates, and paramedics) may perform medical services inside hospitals and in nonhospital settings. The bill rewrites section 4765.36 to clarify that EMTs may provide emergency medical services in a hospital emergency department or while moving a patient between the emergency department and another part of the hospital, under the direction and supervision of a physician, physician assistant designated by a physician, or registered nurse designated by a physician. It also expands the hospital rule to allow certain nonemergency services anywhere in a hospital if the hospital grants privileges for those services, including taking vital signs, transporting patients between hospital areas, and, for EMT-Intermediates and paramedics, placing peripheral IV or intraosseous lines, including with ultrasound assistance.
The bill also amends section 4765.361 to clarify that outside a hospital, EMTs may perform as nonemergency medical services any emergency medical services they are otherwise authorized to perform, so long as they act under the direction of their medical director or cooperating physician advisory board. It further states that those supervising entities cannot authorize an EMT to perform nonemergency services that the EMT is not already legally authorized to perform as emergency services. In effect, the bill updates and narrows the relationship between emergency and nonemergency EMT duties while giving hospitals more flexibility to use EMTs for defined tasks within hospital privileges.
The bill’s impact would be on Ohio’s EMS licensing and scope-of-practice rules, particularly the Revised Code provisions governing EMT practice in hospitals and in nonemergency settings. It would likely affect hospitals, emergency departments, medical directors, physician advisory boards, and EMTs by clarifying where and under what supervision EMTs can work, and by expressly allowing certain hospital-based nonemergency functions that are currently more limited or less clearly defined. It also preserves the rule that nonhospital nonemergency practice cannot exceed the EMT’s legally authorized emergency scope.
Because HB398 was introduced and referred to the House Health Committee with no recorded votes or committee transcript in the provided materials, there is no documented floor debate or formal vote history to indicate broad support or opposition. The bill’s text suggests a generally practical, operational focus rather than a controversial policy change, and its likely appeal is to hospital and EMS stakeholders seeking clearer authority for EMTs to assist with patient movement and routine clinical tasks. Any contention would likely center on scope-of-practice boundaries, supervision requirements, and whether the bill appropriately balances flexibility for hospitals with patient safety and professional oversight.
HB398 would amend Ohio Revised Code sections 4765.36 and 4765.361 to expand and clarify EMT duties in hospitals and nonhospital settings. It would allow EMTs to perform specified nonemergency tasks in hospitals under hospital-granted privileges and would preserve limits on nonhospital nonemergency practice to services already authorized as emergency services, affecting EMTs, hospitals, physicians, physician assistants, registered nurses, and medical directors.
No committee testimony, debate, or votes were provided, so there is no direct evidence of support or opposition in the record supplied. Based on the bill text, the measure appears to be a technical and operational clarification aimed at giving hospitals and EMS personnel more defined authority, which suggests a generally neutral-to-positive policy posture rather than a highly contentious one.
The main potential point of contention is scope of practice: whether EMTs should be allowed to perform nonemergency hospital tasks such as vital signs, patient transport, and IV or intraosseous placement, and how much discretion hospitals should have in granting those privileges. Another possible issue is supervision, since the bill specifies physician, physician assistant, or registered nurse oversight in hospitals and medical director/cooperating physician advisory board direction outside hospitals. Stakeholders most likely to focus on these boundaries would be EMS professionals, hospital administrators, and medical oversight bodies.