List Archives

Sat Mar 3 16:53:59 GMT 2007

In a message dated 3/2/2007 2:17:34 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
ben.addleman at gmail.com writes:

EMS  should be
permitted to leave stable patients in the ER waiting room rather  than having
to remain with them until an ER bed is available for them,  as

This is NOT an EMS issue.  It is a hospital, medical staff, and  Emergency 
Center issue.    The time of EMS to EC handoff should  be no more than 5 minutes 
so EMS can complete their paperwork and get back into  service to the 
community.     

For a patient to already be inside the hospital or ER walls (? even on the  
hospital property), that patient is under the moral, ethical, medical, and 
legal  responsibility of the hospital and its medical staff.  Just because there  
is a delay in handoff to ER personnel, and the patient is still on the 
ambulance  gurney with an EMT or Paramedic does not relieve the hospital and its 
medical  staff of their EMTALA, and other medical evaluation and treatment  
responsibilities.     

I recognize the EC is overcrowded, often with non -  emergencies.    That is 
a policy and societal problem with which  we MUST grapple.  I recognize that 
persons call the ambulance and EMS  to expedite getting into the ER, but 
society (consumerism) has assumed that if  one arrives by ambulance to an ER, the 
patient will be seen, triaged, and cared  for expediciously (? 5 minutes or 
less).   That assumption becomes a  duty when it gets into a court room, 
especially if a BAD outcome happened after  arrival at the hospital and before the 
hospital and its medical staff assumed  care.  

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EMS - EC handoffs - ER Hallway patients.