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Roland Imperial v. Drapeau8/27/1998
, the General Assembly has made a legislative finding to that effect in Maryland Code (1978, 1997 Repl. Vol.), 13-502 of the Education Article (Ed.).
"(4) The citizens of Maryland are fortunate to have highly trained career and volunteer fire fighters, emergency medical technicians, and rescue squad personnel providing life-sustaining services in the field to ill and injured persons."
Because the quality of pre-hospital, emergency medical care can literally be a matter of life and death, it carries a very high priority. Accordingly, public policy encourages the communication of information to public authorities responsible for maintaining the quality of emergency medical services. Fear of a potential defamation action discourages the reporting of any complaints, including those that the monitoring authorities would conclude, after investigation, are meritorious.
In the instant matter there are procedural safeguards that adequately protected the reputation of a subject of a complaint about emergency medical service. The subject complaint was investigated by MIEMSS. MIEMSS is an independent state agency, located at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Ed. 13-503(b). The governing body of MIEMSS is the Emergency Medical Service Board (the EMS Board). Ed. 13-503(c). The principal statutory duty of the EMS Board is to "develop and adopt an Emergency Medical System plan to ensure effective coordination and evaluation of emergency medical services delivered in this State." Ed. 13-509(a). To that end the Executive Director of MIEMSS is to " oordinate the training of all personnel in the Emergency Medical Services System and develop the necessary standards for their certification." Ed. 13-510(4).
Any action, adverse to Drapeau, resulting from the investigation by MIEMSS could not be taken without Drapeau's consent or without complying with the contested cases subtitle of the Maryland Administrative Procedure Act, Md. Code (1984, 1995 Repl. Vol.), 10-201 through 10-227 of the State Government Article (SG). Different paths, however, lead to that conclusion. There are various classifications of EMTs and, in 1995, the agency with ultimate disciplinary authority depended upon the class of EMT complained of.
The letter to Imperial from MIEMSS advised that the responding EMTs had used "the Maryland Medical Protocols for Cardiac Rescue Technicians and Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedics" to determine England's need. One inference from the use of these protocols is that at least one of the two responding EMTs was an EMT-Cardiac. A resident EMT-Cardiac (who is not a student) must have completed a course approved by the State Board of Physician Quality Assurance (the P.Q.A. Board) and by the Director of Emergency Medical Services. That individual also must have been examined and certified as an EMT-Cardiac by the P.Q.A. Board. Md. Code (1981, 1994 Repl. Vol.), 14-303(a) of the Health Occupations Article (HO); see also HO 14-101(b). The P.Q.A. Board is authorized to reprimand or place on probation an EMT-Cardiac, or suspend or revoke the certification of an EMT-Cardiac, for any conduct prohibited under HO 14-303 or under any regulation adopted by the P.Q.A. Board. HO 14-303(c). Before any disciplinary action can be taken under HO 14-303, the EMT-Cardiac is entitled to a hearing, as provided by HO 14-405(a). At this hearing the Maryland Administrative Procedure Act applies "except that factual findings shall be supported by clear and convincing evidence," a higher standard than that ordinarily applicable to administrative proceedings. HO 14-405(b). There are rights of review, first by the Board of Review of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and then by a circuit
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