How to work with EMS

Nursing homes frequently rely on emergency medical services (EMS) to transport patients to and from routine medical appointments and in emergency situations. Providing seamless transfer of care from the nursing homes to ambulance is a common goal of both nursing home caregivers and EMTs. This goal can be reached through demonstration clinical knowledge, open communication and skill and compassion. Here are a few basic steps that you can take to make your contact with EMS successful.

• Always provide the EMTs with the patient face sheet including name, age, date of birth social security number,  all billing information and POA information
• Recent medical records that may be needed by the doctor at the time of the appointment
• Copy of the patient DNR
• Have your patient pre-register for all out patient preceedures 

By everyone working together and following these few steps will help prevent delays in patients transfers and assist our service on maintaining our schedule on a timely bases

It is very important to keep in mind when scheduling transportation that most insurances do not cover Para Transit Wheelchair or Stretcher Van services.

INSURANCE COMPANYS and

TRANSPORTATION SERVICEs

In most cases insurance carriers   may not cover transportation or a pre-authorization could be required prior to transporting the patient.  this information should be readly available when scheduling your patient transfer.

Medicare does require a PMNC for every Basic Life Support Ambulance transfer. This does not guarantee the patient transfer will be covered, it is just one of many requirements that has to be met for payment consideration.

HAVE THE PATIENTS PRIMARY CAREGIVER AVAILABLE during emergency's to provide the EMTS with information concerning the patient

It is always important for nursing facility to keep in mind that EMS services must handle patient transfers on a priority bases, Although you may have schedule your non-emergency transfer in advance, We are still obligated to respond to a medical emergency first.

It is also good to keep in mind that traffic and weather conditions can effect the timelyness of transport crews

Scheduling the correct transportation for your patient is very important and cost effective.

Patients that are able to sit for long periods of time with little monitoring and does not require constant care and treatment, should be scheduled for Para Transit Wheelchair van services. Patients that have been medicated or sedated should never be transfered by Para Transit wheelchair services.

Patients that are unable to sit and reqiure minimal monitoring should be scheduled for Stretcher Van service.

Patients that require constant health monitoring, such as suctioning, airway management or addition care should be scheduled for Basic Life Support Ambulance service.

In all cases it is very important to provide as much patient information concerning the patients condition and needs. In addition the correct address of the receiving facility, including such information as patients weight and if there is any steps or obstacles involved in transfering the patient safely in addition the name and address of the responsible party for payment or insurance information and authorization numbers.