An Emergency Medical Technician [“EMT”] was charged with failure to render appropriate patient care by accepting a refusal of medical aid from a patient with unclear decisional capacity, making false statements and walking the patient home. The EMT responded to a restaurant based on a report that a woman had fallen backwards off a stool and hit her head.
Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings Administrative Law Judge Susan J. Pogoda found the Fire Department failed to prove the charges and credited the EMT’s testimony that the patient had the decisional capacity to refuse medical attention, that a full trauma assessment of the patient was conducted not once but twice; the patient showed no signs of any injury from a fall; she was not intoxicated or impaired; her vital signs were normal and she understood her options and knowingly refused medical attention.
ALJ Pogoda also found the EMT’s decision to walk the patient home did not rise to the level of misconduct and recommended that all the charges be dismissed.
The decision is posted on the Internet at: