STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2889

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2017

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 2017 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to repeal section 453-34(d), Hawaii Revised Statutes, which limits licensure as an emergency medical technician 1 to individuals whose practice is performed in a county with a population of 500,000 or greater.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the State Fire Council. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Hawaii Medical Board.

Your Committee finds that there are approximately one thousand four hundred emergency medical technicians in the State certified by the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMTs), which is the standard for educational requirements in most states. Over the past two years of the pandemic, NREMTs across the State have clearly demonstrated their value by providing an additional level of patient care and services, particularly in neighbor island communities where pre-hospital resources are not as abundant or centralized as they are on Oahu. This measure will, accordingly, expand licensure to all NREMTs throughout the State.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that an "emergency medical technician 1" is an individual who is certified at a higher practice level that an emergency medical responder; and

(2) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purpose of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2017, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2017, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection,

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ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair