Calling Online Medical Control

Calling OLMC connects you directly to a Physician or Advanced Practice Provider, such as a Physician Assistant (PA) or Nurse Practitioner (NP), can be a great resource for you to use while on-scene for several functions:

1. If you want to administer a medication that is outside your protocol.
2. If you want to administer a medication that your protocols require OLMC approval.
3. If you have a patient and you are at a loss on how best to move forward with your assessment or treatment.

For all medication administration scenarios in EMT school that are outside of your standing orders, you will call OLMC for direction. OLMC will be most effective if you are able to describe the patient situation logically and include all necessary elements of your assessment. To perform a call to OLMC:

1. Dial the number and ask to speak with the Online Medical Control Physician (in class this will be a pretend call and the instructor will play the role of the physician)
2. Request the physician’s name and clarify spelling.
3. State your request, (i.e., “I am calling to request administration of Albuterol”)
4. Provide patient details including age, gender, chief complaint, relevant findings, and vitals (make sure to have a set of vital signs to relay, you will not get orders without them)
5. State your differential diagnosis.
6. Repeat your request.
7. Listen to the response! Clarify follow up questions and repeat orders back to verify they were understood correctly.

Try the following template:

“Hello, this is    your name, certification level, unit number, location   , and I am calling to speak with a physician regarding     reason for call     . Can you spell your name please (write down name of physician). I am on scene with a      pts age, reported gender  . They are complaining of     chief complaint    , which started    time/activity    . Their vital signs are     BP, HR, RR, SpO2, CBG, etc.    . We found    other assessment details and scene clues .”

Choose one based on the reason for calling OLMC…

• • • “I believe they may be suffering from     your differential diagnosis     .”
    • “I am not sure yet what is going on. Do you have a recommendation for assessment or treatment?” (end)

“I would like to        repeat request to administer / request permission        for        reason for calling OLMC      . (Listen to answer, repeat direction back to physician for confirmation).