State requirements for physician emergency medical services providers.

Objective: To describe requirements of physicians wishing to function as primary field emergency medical services (EMS) providers and variation of these requirements among states.

Methods: A simple mailed survey was developed and distributed to all 50 U.S.

Out-of-hospital medication storage temperatures: a review of the literature and directions for the future.

The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) National Formulary prescribes the packaging, storage, and distribution of medications. Most of the medications commonly used by emergency medical services (EMS) are intended for storage at "controlled room temperature." The USP definition of controlled room temperature is multifaceted and complex, and cannot be easily described as a simple range of acceptable temperatures, or even as an average temperature.