By: Hinojosa S.B. No. 1399
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the awarding of grants to initiate, expand, maintain,
and improve emergency medical services and to support medical
systems and facilities that provide trauma care.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 3. Section 773.119(b), Health and Safety Code, is
amended as follows:
(b) The executive commissioner by rule shall establish
eligibility criteria for awarding the grants. The rules must
require the department to consider:
(1) the need of an area for the provision of emergency
medical services or trauma care and the extent to which the grant
would meet the identified need;
(2) the availability of personnel and training
programs;
(3) the availability of other funding sources;
(4) the assurance of providing quality services;
(5) the use or acquisition of helicopters for emergency
medical evacuation; [and]
(6) the development or existence of an emergency
medical services system; and
(7) the development of a centralized system for the
dispatch, triage, transport, and transfer of patients, including
the use or acquisition of technology, to ensure coordinated patient
transports and transfers, the efficient utilization of trauma care
and emergency medical services.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives a
vote of two-thirds of all members elected to each house, as provided
by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this Act does not
receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this Act takes
effect September 1, 2021.