Jeff Lichtman got it right. EMS should transport to the closest appropriate facility. Bypassing a local hospital for a trauma center or stroke center is acceptable. A local ER crying “uncle” & asking EMS to divert elsewhere for a period of time is acceptable. Going where the patient wants to go, if it’s appreciably further is getting into a gray area. If anything happens to that patient enroute to the further ER, including a vehicle accident/incident, EMS personnel will need to be able to justify why they were going to the further location when things went south, otherwise they are in breach of their duty.
Probably a case of in-network vs. out-of-network & what percentage of the bill they’ll pay, & what type of discount off of ‘rack rate’ that they’ve already negotiated.
I was at a local ER this weekend and the nurse attending to my family member was complaining that squads bring too many patients to their ER “They will pass up several ERs to get here.” Her ER has a trauma center and is attached to a hospital with a cardiac unit, so they are well-equipped. They have 22 rooms in the ER! But she said there are a lot of patients that come in that don’t need the extensive care of their hospital, and could have been taken somewhere else.
Why this happens (from an EMT’s perspective), I don’t know. Maybe they are hedging their bets and taking everyone directly to the top-of-the-line ER?
FWIW my family member is a heart patient so the EMTs told us they were taking him to this further ER as opposed to the one much closer. They said they always take cardiac patients to that one.
Guessing they were going to take you to Sutter? :eek: In your situation, I’d much rather be at John Muir as it’s a trauma center. Not that Sutter is a bad hospital, but John Muir is IMHO a better hospital.
Takeaway lesson for everyone - learn and file away in the back of your head which hospital(s) near you is a trauma center, which one is the best for whatever specialty - cardiac care, pediatrics, etc. that’s important to you.