Medical Direction

Medical direction, or online medical direction, allows a

paramedic A paramedic is a registered healthcare professional who works autonomously across a range of health and care settings and may specialise in clinical practice, as well as in education, leadership, and research. Not all ambulance personnel are p ...

emergency medical technician An emergency medical technician (EMT), also known as an ambulance technician, is a health professional that provides emergency medical services. EMTs are most commonly found working in ambulances. In English-speaking countries, paramedics a ...

(EMT) to contact a physician from the field via

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...

or other means to obtain instructions on further care of a patient. This is used particularly when a patient is in need of care that is not allowed without medical direction under the caregiver's

scope of practice Scope of practice describes the procedures, actions, and processes that a healthcare practitioner is permitted to undertake in keeping with the terms of their professional license. The scope of practice is limited to that which the law allows for ...

. For example,

may be treating a burn victim in the field, and has already given the maximum amount of narcotic allowed without

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

's permission. The

will attempt to contact his or her base station hospital and ask for further instructions in order to provide the

patient A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health ...

with pain relief. There are two different types of medical direction. Direct medical direction, often called on-line medical direction, is when care is rendered under direct orders of the base station physician, usually over the radio or telephone. The other is indirect medical direction, or off-line medical direction, which includes the development of a set of written

medical guideline Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practi ...

s, or standing orders. Emergency medicine {{treatment-stub