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Committee questions giving emergency responders a week to file incident reports under HB 183
Summary
Senators pressed bill proponents on House Bill 183, which would allow emergency medical services personnel up to seven days to submit incident reports. Committee members said seven days may be too long and discussed alternatives; no committee vote was taken.
Senators on the Executive Departments and Administration Committee raised concerns on Wednesday about House Bill 183, which would change the timing requirement for emergency medical services personnel to file incident reports.
Representative Carol McGuire introduced the measure and said it passed the House on consent. “Instead of requiring EMT incident reports immediately, it says it gives them a week,” McGuire said, adding that the change would account for shift schedules and end-of-shift timing. “If you're finished an emergency medical incident... and it's quitting time, you may not want to stick around and write the report that day.”
Committee members pushed back on whether seven days is too long. “Seven days seems like a long time to me,” one senator said, asking for a clearer definition of what an incident report contains and whether longer delays could harm patient care or create evidentiary problems.
A staff member later noted the current term EMSIR—which covers patient-care reporting—appears in administrative rules (cited as SAF 5901.4 in committee discussion) and includes the patient-care record. Committee members discussed common practice in neighboring states: some require reports within 24 hours, while Massachusetts allows seven days because of interfacility transfers and paperwork delays.
Senators debated compromise options, including keeping the existing 24-hour rule or moving to 48 hours to give providers extra time without stretching memory and record quality. One senator noted the risk in litigation of long delays: attorneys can challenge a provider’s recollection and contemporaneousness if reports are filed many days later.
The committee did not advance HB 183 and agreed to hold the bill so members could gather more information from the sponsor and from EMS stakeholders. No vote was taken.
The discussion focused on balancing prompt, contemporaneous reporting for patient safety and legal reliability with operational realities for providers who work long shifts or face multiple transfers.
