The Ministry of Health and Welfare will introduce a GPS-based real-time operation management system to prevent false ambulance runs and trips for non-emergency purposes. It will also strengthen management of emergency patient transport services, including raising private ambulance transport and treatment fees that had been frozen for 12 years.
The ministry said on the 12th that it will enforce, starting on the 13th, a revision to the Enforcement Rules of the Emergency Medical Service Act that includes these measures.
The core of the revision is stricter management of ambulance operations. Going forward, all ambulance operators must transmit, in real time, operation data collected by a GPS-based trip recorder to the Ambulance run Information Recording system (AiR). The ministry said it expects to continuously monitor for false or non-purpose runs through this and to improve the accuracy of operation record management.
Transmission of GPS-based operation data will be phased in, considering preparation time. Private emergency transport providers will be subject to it in three months, and ambulances of medical institutions and national and local governments will be subject to it in one year and three months.
Private ambulance transport and treatment fees will also be updated for the first time in 12 years. The ministry adjusted the base and additional charges that had been frozen since 2014 and created a "waiting fee" to compensate for wait times that occur when handing over a patient at a medical institution. It will also expand the scope of nighttime and holiday surcharges.
Standards for ambulance safety equipment will also be strengthened. All ambulances will be required to carry an epinephrine auto-injector to respond to anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction.
Emergency room patient handover procedures will also be updated to reflect reality. Previously, patients could be handed over only to physicians, but going forward, handovers will also be allowed to emergency medical workers such as nurses and emergency medical technicians. Procedures for licensing emergency patient transport businesses and transferring or acquiring operations will also be partially streamlined.
The increase in transport and treatment fees and the mandatory stocking of epinephrine will take effect one month after promulgation.
In the second half of this year, the ministry also plans additional policy changes, including requiring at least one emergency medical technician to be on board for all patient transports, expanding interior space in ambulance patient compartments, and improving staffing standards for emergency patient transport businesses.