Standard Orders

Your SOCs should be from your company via your medical director and should be in writing. Any medical care that deviates from them or is needed in addition to them should be coming from the physician receiving the patient or from your MC doc. You should not working from orders from the sending physician....ever.

Thank you for your response. In the Interfacility Transports guide published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration they provide the following recommendation:

Medical oversight is variable and depends on

State and local regulations As per the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), the referring physician is responsible for the patient being transferred from one facility to another, until the patient arrives at the receiving facility On-line medical direction may be provided by the referring physician, the accepting physician, the transfer- ring agency medical director, the medical director's proxy for specialty care issues, or some combina- tion of the above This often is determined by the State and local regulations, and may differ between jurisdictions For example, in some jurisdictions,

if the transport vehicle is owned by the receiving facility that liability begins when the crew assumes care of the patient (pg 12)

DOT HS 510 579Of course this information may be more applicable for surface transport and it appears you are a flight nurse based on your user name :)

At any rate, interesting to hear your stance on not working from orders from the sending doc... ever. Is that based on your company recommendations, state recommendations, or just a rule of thumb you've been going on?