Emergency medical services: dispatcher training.

Led by Assembly Member Carrillo and coauthored by Assembly Member Aguiar-Curry, the measure directs public safety agencies that process 911 calls for emergency medical response to provide prearrival medical instructions to callers in need of medical help. The instructions would cover six core areas—airway and choking management for infants, children, and adults; AED and CPR guidance for children and adults; childbirth; bleeding control; epinephrine auto-injector use for suspected anaphylaxis; and naloxone administration for suspected narcotics overdoses—and would be required to take effect by January 1, 2027. The instructions would need approval from the local EMS agency medical director and would be implemented in alignment with the medical protocols adopted by the agency.

Public safety agencies can meet the requirement by developing their own prearrival instructions or by contracting with another public safety agency that provides prearrival medical guidance. The content and delivery would require approval by the local EMS medical director pursuant to existing regulations and would need to be consistent with the agency’s established medical protocols. If an agency already uses approved prearrival instructions through EMS dispatch or other approved means, it would not be obligated to revise those policies. The measure excludes peace officers dispatching to the scene from being counted as call processing for EMS purposes and preserves the authority to adopt EMS dispatch guidelines within existing law.

Fiscal provisions establish a mandate framework: in general, local agencies bear the costs associated with the new requirements, with no automatic state reimbursement for costs created by changing crimes or penalties, while reimbursement for other mandated costs could be provided if the state mandates those costs as determined by the state mandates commission. The proposal creates a local-program assessment and maintains the existing EMS regulatory structure, with local EMS medical directors playing a central role in content approval and ongoing alignment with adopted medical protocols, and with contracting as a potential mechanism to deliver the required prearrival instructions.