What term allows treatment without physician contact?

• A. Treat-and-Release Protocols
• B. Base Physician Contact
• C. Standing Orders
• D. FDA

Answer: (C)

Standing orders are pre-approved medical directives that empower EMS providers to initiate certain treatments without direct physician contact, as long as they stay within the scope defined by the medical director. This setup speeds care and ensures consistency, since providers don’t need to call for a physician for every decision. For example, under standing orders a paramedic can administer aspirin for chest pain or provide a bronchodilator for bronchospasm when criteria are met. Requiring base physician contact would mean treating only after a real-time consultation, which is the opposite of having independent treatment capability. The FDA, while essential for drug approval and regulation, is not a clinical protocol for field treatment.