Mandatory Radio Reports?

[FeatherWeight]

Recently I was talking about radio reports with my supervisor who was formerly a medic from Texas, he was telling me how they never even made radio reports and just show up to the hospital without giving them a heads up. I'm not sure if this was just a old school way of running calls or if Texas or anywhere else still does this? Can anyone confirm this because that blows my mind how they would allow this.

 

[JPINFV]

Location dependent. Some regions require a radio report and others don't. There's also a difference between a medical control consult (everything) and an entry note (quick summery like age, sex, CC, maybe vitals, ETA).

 

[Jon]

Very location dependent. In the more urban areas I've run, you just show up unless you need Command for some reason, or it's a code or trauma.

In the more suburban areas, we either call for notification, or have the county radio room make the notification.

 

[FeatherWeight]

Woah, I cant really think of a reason why you wouldnt be able tell the hospital what you have. Do you know of any specific regions where they arnt required to make radio reports?

 

[Jon]

Woah, I cant really think of a reason why you wouldnt be able tell the hospital what you have. Do you know of any specific regions where they arnt required to make radio reports?

Think urban. In my case, Philadelphia and DC metro. We aren't really surprising the ED staff. They expect EMS, and often keep all their beds full. Unless I'm bringing a code, CPAP, or trauma alert - they don't care. They'll figure it out when we get there.

 

[JPINFV]

Woah, I cant really think of a reason why you wouldnt be able tell the hospital what you have. Do you know of any specific regions where they arnt required to make radio reports?

From what I've been told, the metro Boston area hospitals don't care.

 

[Veneficus]

Woah, I cant really think of a reason why you wouldnt be able tell the hospital what you have. Do you know of any specific regions where they arnt required to make radio reports?

Nobody calls to notify the hospital before they walk in the front door...

 

[DrParasite]

BLS in NJ generally don't give reports. the medical control from ALS is supposed to notify the receiving hospital, but that doesn't always happen, esp if they get busy. Urban systems (which NJ has a ton of) very very rarely gives reports. It's all show up and "surprise!!"

its a courtesy so they can prepare a bed for you. if not, you will just have to wait longer.

unless you are bringing in an intubated patient, CPAPed patient, trauma, stemi, or code OB, you will typically wait until they can get a bed available. since these calls make up a minority of the patients we transport, it isn't that big of a deal.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

It depends on the city. In busier areas, the radio report for a routine, stable patient just takes up time. Their volume is so high already, an extra patient isn't going to make or break anything.

In my area, we are required to make an entry report with Pt age/gender, CC, brief HOPI, VS, any treatments, and an ETA.

If hospitals get busy and we go to "The Plan" then no, dispatch lets the hospital know when they have a unit coming in, and if they have a special need (STEMI alert, Stroke alert, Burn, Trauma and Level, etc). If the hospital wants to contact us, they have access to "The Plan" Transport channel which all units must monitor when we are on "The Plan."

An aside: "The Plan" sounds very ominous and indeed it is--we have only had one instance that we've been on it in the past 5 years, but it doesn't sound as ominous as "The Other Plan" colloquially known as "Plan B" though the county didn't want to call it that because it sounded like things are really bad (which they would be if we were on Plan B).

 

[abckidsmom]

Think urban. In my case, Philadelphia and DC metro. We aren't really surprising the ED staff. They expect EMS, and often keep all their beds full. Unless I'm bringing a code, CPAP, or trauma alert - they don't care. They'll figure it out when we get there.

In my rural system they sometimes ask for the patients name and DOB along with their entire story.

It's so very anticlimactic to get there and say "Ok, here ya go." Because there is nothing left to be said.

 

[Tigger]

From what I've been told, the metro Boston area hospitals don't care.

The city hospitals do not care, heck you go to Boston Medical and the ambulance triage area is not even attended, you call for a triage nurse over an intercom and they'll send someone eventually.

Some of the suburban hospitals will flip if you don't call a note, and the really anal ones only accept C-MED (state radio network of sorts) patched notes.

 

[Handsome Robb]

It depends on the city. In busier areas, the radio report for a routine, stable patient just takes up time. Their volume is so high already, an extra patient isn't going to make or break anything.

In my area, we are required to make an entry report with Pt age/gender, CC, brief HOPI, VS, any treatments, and an ETA.

If hospitals get busy and we go to "The Plan" then no, dispatch lets the hospital know when they have a unit coming in, and if they have a special need (STEMI alert, Stroke alert, Burn, Trauma and Level, etc). If the hospital wants to contact us, they have access to "The Plan" Transport channel which all units must monitor when we are on "The Plan."

An aside: "The Plan" sounds very ominous and indeed it is--we have only had one instance that we've been on it in the past 5 years, but it doesn't sound as ominous as "The Other Plan" colloquially known as "Plan B" though the county didn't want to call it that because it sounded like things are really bad (which they would be if we were on Plan B).

What's "The Plan"?

 

[DesertMedic66]

For my area we call in for everything. BLS, ALS, or CCT it all gets called in.

If we don't call in a simple thing like toe pain we get chewed out and can actually get in trouble. The MICN will usually triage BS calls so that we just go directly to the waiting room. For critical calls they will already have a bed and a team all ready to go with tons of equipment (code, STEMI, Stroke, Respiratory, Trauma, etc).

Depending on the hospital they will actually meet us at the back doors of the ambulance to start helping. If no bed is free they will have a bed push out into the hallway and we will go into the room and the teams will begin treatments on our gurney.

And now a new policy came out that for any AMA where an ALS treatment/intervention was used we must call in order to AMA. So basically we call the hospital for everything.

 

[DrParasite]

If no bed is free they will have a bed push out into the hallway and we will go into the room and the teams will begin treatments on our gurney.

which is a major EMTALA violation if I'm not mistaken.

And now a new policy came out that for any AMA where an ALS treatment/intervention was used we must call in order to AMA. So basically we call the hospital for everything.

are you calling the hospital, or your medical director? our ALS has to call the doctor for every single ALS patient contact where an ALS invention is given. we only call the receiving hospital if we transport. just looking to clarify.

 

[NomadicMedic]

We also call a report for everything via radio. Even worse, if we're going out of state, we have to call one of our hospitals with med control as an advisory, and then we have to call to the out of state hospital to let them know we're inbound.

A huge PITA.

 

[DesertMedic66]

which is a major EMTALA violation if I'm not mistaken.are you calling the hospital, or your medical director? our ALS has to call the doctor for every single ALS patient contact where an ALS invention is given. we only call the receiving hospital if we transport. just looking to clarify.

Never met or talked to our medical director. Medical directors here are county based meaning we only have one for the whole county. Everything is hospital based.

 

[Christopher]

Recently I was talking about radio reports with my supervisor who was formerly a medic from Texas, he was telling me how they never even made radio reports and just show up to the hospital without giving them a heads up. I'm not sure if this was just a old school way of running calls or if Texas or anywhere else still does this? Can anyone confirm this because that blows my mind how they would allow this.

They aren't technically required always, but some of our protocols specifically mention them so we would in those cases. We do it for all cases anyways as they use it to "pre-register" the patient to help with bed assignment.

But if it is a triage case we'll just pull around to triage and walk them in without calling.

 

[grump]

We are "very" rural but we always call the hosp. before we get there. Showing up through the ER is one thing but bringing a pt in the buggy deserves a heads up. Makes for a better relationship with all involved.

 

[Medic Tim]

We call for everything. We also triage the pt so when we arrive we usually have a bed or unit assignment.

 

[Tigger]

We are "very" rural but we always call the hosp. before we get there. Showing up through the ER is one thing but bringing a pt in the buggy deserves a heads up. Makes for a better relationship with all involved.

It does? Most patients don't call the ED before they drive down there, at some point the ED is expecting EMS. Bigger places don't need you to bother them with what they already know.