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Abandonment |
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Unilateral termination of care by the EMT without the patient's consent and without making provisions for transferring care. |
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Advance Directive |
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Written documentation that specifies medical treatment for a competent patient should the patient become unable to make decisions, AKA a living will. |
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Assault |
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Unlawfully placing a patient in fear of bodily harm. |
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Battery |
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Touching a patient or providing emergency care without consent. |
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Certification |
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A process in which a person, an institution, or a program is evaluated and recognized as meeting certain standards to provide safe and ethical care. |
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Competent |
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Able to make rational decisions about personal well-being. |
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Consent |
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Permission to render care. |
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Dependent Lividity |
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Blood settling to the lowest point of the body, causing discoloration of the skin. |
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Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) Orders |
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Written documentation by a physician giving permission to medical personnel not to attempt resuscitation in the event of cardiac arrest. |
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Duty To Act |
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A medicolegal term relating to certain personnel who either by statute or by function has a responsibility to provide care. |
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Emergency |
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A serious situation that threatens the life or welfare of a person or group of people and requires immediate intervention. |
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Emergency Medical Care |
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Immediate care or treatment. |
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Express Consent |
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A type of consent in which a patient gives express authorization for provision of care or transport. |
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Forcible Restraint |
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The act of physically preventing an individual from any physical action. |
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Good Samaritan Laws |
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Laws enacted to protect citizens from liability for errors in giving emergency medical care, unless they are grossly negligent. |
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Implied Consent |
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Type of consent in which a patient who is unable to give consent is given treatment under the legal assumption that he or she would want treatment. |
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Informed Consent |
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Permission for treatment given by a competent patient after the potential risks, benefits, and alternatives to treatment have been explained. |
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Medicolegal |
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A term relating to medical jurisprudence (law) or forensic medicine. |
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Negligence |
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Failure to provide the same care that a person with similar training would provide. |
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Precedence |
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basing current action on lessons, rules, or guidelines derived from previous similar experiences. |
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Putrefaction |
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Decomposition of body tissues. |
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Rigor Mortis |
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Stiffening of the body; a definitive sign of death. |
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Standard of Care |
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Written levels of emergency care expected by reason of training and profession so that patients are not exposed to unreasonable risk or harm. |
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