Negligence
Failure to perform a required or expected act.
Nonfeasance
A type of consent in which a patient who is unable to give consent (because the person is unresponsive, delusional, exhibiting an altered mental status as a result of drug or alcohol use, or is otherwise physically unable to give expressed consent) is given treatment under the legal assumption that the person would want treatment.
Compensation for injury; awarded by a court.
Damages
Written, accepted levels of emergency medical care expected by a reason of training and profession; written by legal or professional organizations to that patients are not exposed to unreasonable risk or harm.
Standard of care
The seizing, confining, abducting, or carrying away of a person by force, including transporting a competent adult for medical treatment without the person's consent.
Kidnapping
An unauthorized act committed outside the scope of medical practice as defined by law
Malfeasance
Permission to render emergency medical care.
Consent
Civil Lawsuit
Most commonly defined by state law; outlines the emergency medical care that the advanced emergency medical technician is able to provide to the patient.
Scope of practice
An action instituted by the government against a person for violation of criminal law.
Criminal Prosecution
Conduct that constitutes a willful or reckless disregard for a duty or standard of care
Gross negligence
Able to make rational decisions about personal well-being.
Competent
False and damaging information about a person that is communicated in writing.
Libel
Written documents, signed by the EMS system's medical director, that outlines specific directions, permissions, and sometimes prohibitions regarding patient care; also called protocols.
Standing orders
The philosophy of right and wrong, or moral duties, and of ideal professional behavior.
Ethics
Appropriate act performed in an improper manner, such as a medication administered at the wrong dose.
Misfeasance
A type of consent in which a patient gives verbal or nonverbal authorization for provision of emergency medical care or transport.
Expressed Consent
Wrongful act that gives rise to a civil lawsuit.
Tort
Precise and detailed plans for a regimen of therapy (for example, advanced cardiac life support algorithms.)
Protocols
A person who is under the legal age in a given state (age 18 in most cases) but, because of other circumstances, is legally considered an adult.
Emancipated Minor
Failure to provide the same care that a person with similar training would provide.
Negligence
Permission for treatment given by a competent patient after the potential risks, benefits, and alternatives to treatment have been explained.
Informed consent
False and damaging information about a person that is communicated by the spoken word.
Slander
A medicolegal term relating to certain personnel who either by statute or by function have a responsibility to provide patient care.
Duty
Statutory provisions enacted by many states to protect citizens from liability for errors and omission in giving good faith emergency medical care, unless there is wanton, gross, or willful negligence.
Good Samaritan Laws