Medical Transportation......

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Okay so, I'm new as a nurse in my area of New Jersey. There is a lot of the usual that I have been trained to do and stuff to deal with no different from anyone else. However there is one aspect I was truly unaware of and would love to know more about if anyone could help a girl out. How exactly does medical transport......get it's patients ? Not everybody just calls up I know that ? Is there some kind of place on the internet where they see a list of eligible people to get ? Lol. I've been having this argument with my friend for the longest. I says that some just have contracts. But she says that it can be through nurses giving them inside information to patients. But what is our (us as nurses I mean) relationship supposed to be with them ? If someone could direct me to forum/thread to get my answer that would be really nice.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

Not sure what you're asking. Are you asking about ambulances?

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Yeah, I'm sorry if I'm not being very clear.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

As far as I know, they just get called by the dispatcher.

What do you mean, they have contracts? With whom? I'm also not sure what you mean by "what are nurses' relationships with them?"

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I guess what I'm really asking is how does each ambulance company differ in they're work load ? Do some get contracts or do is it through nurses as my friend says ?....Perhaps both ?

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By who ? There isn't a specific area that has that responsibility ?

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

I believe it's based solely on geographical region. An ambulance company will cover all calls in a certain area. If none are available, then sometimes another company will come in. Nurses' referrals have nothing to do with it. When I've had to call for a transport to the hospital, I just call 911 and they send whoever is available (I work ambulatory care). Our particular hospital network has its own ambulance service, but they also transport to other non-affiliated hospitals in the area.

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When it comes to emergencies. Yeah. But what about non-emergency ? There is this company called E-Class, that always has a consistent amount of patients and sometimes that are new (well to me at least in where I work, lol) Now because they're small they have people call them. But what I trying to figure out is how else can an ambulance company grow outside of contracts ?

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

I have no idea, sorry.

I know our facility has a list of companies that have contracts with managed care to provide transportation for our Medicaid/managed care patients to appointments - the list is on their website and patients can look it up and call one of the companies. But this is just transportation, not ambulance service. Usually it's through a cab company.

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Ohhhhh..........Okay. Yeah, my hospital has something similar. I keep trying to tell her that it's through contracts.....well more or less.

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Specializes in NICU.

If you are referring to ambulance services transporting from scene/home/ nursing home, private companies sometimes have contracts with individuals that have frequent visits to the hospital due to chronic medical conditions. It is cheaper for them to pay a monthly or yearly fee to be transported to hospital whenever medically necessary rather than paying per trip. Also, nursing homes usually have a private company that they like to use (no contract) for emergency transport to hospital or planned trips to doctor visits because they provide better service or come to nursing home to start IVs.

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Many will have contracts which can include specifics such as response time for a fairly basic transport which was not previously arranged. They are to follow certain guidelines which make approval for the non emergent transport easier. It is a lot of paperwork and phone calls to insurances and ambulances if that relationship is not already established. Also, if you call a transport ambulance as a personal referral because you or your spouse works there you could be breaking your company's compliance rules.

Social Workers and case managers usually do the prescheduled transports since most do require insurance/CMS approval which is then given to the ambulance company prior to transport.

Some ambulance companies have suffered huge financial losses if they lose a huge contract like Kaiser or Kindred. Others may expand their fleet when they get their contract.

The type of services and the training of the personnel will also be a big factor in determining who transports and which ambulance service is most appropriate for a contract.

After hours for routine transports there should be a list ambulances who are approved. This also includes CCT transports since 911 EMS are not the best for LTAC, subacute or any patient with lots of accessories attached. The exception would be an emergency needing immediate attention.

Certain cab companies are also preferred if they are able to bill insurances/CMS and the CM or SW will know this when arranging scheduled transports.

Medical necessity paperwork for a particular transport will have to be on file in all situations except for 911 calls.

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