Pick-up and Drop-off Private Medical Transportation

Pick-up and drop-off points for private medical transportation could be a hospital, medical facility, or a private home or hospice. Pick-up will involve qualified medical personnel evaluating the patient to ensure that the are indeed well-enough for a long distance trip by an ambulance airplane. Because, the last thing that anyone wants or needs is to have to stop when a patient who was thought to be stable, suddenly requires emergency medical treatment.

This evaluation is actually two-fold before the pick-up and transport can be setup. After the hospital staff conducts their evaluation, the staff of the transportation company may also do the same. This is for the obvious reason, there are concerns whenever you are transporting someone with any type of medical condition.

Once a patient is loaded onto the stretcher, they remain in position. When preparing for travel, the vehicle is equipped with a life system, which allows them to remain on the stretcher, for the entire duration of the trip.

Although the medical transportation is a private business, it is still required to carry liability insurance. Liability insurance is something that is required by all businesses that deal with the public, either in a limited or full capacity. But, it’s something that you want to and needs to have, but hope to never use.

So, after the health of a patient is accessed and it is determined that they are healthy enough for a long distance trip. The medical coordinator of the private medical transportation company begins planning the details of the trip, to ensure the comfort and safety of the patient they are transporting.

Bedside to bedside pick-ups and drop-ups are the most used service, which requires non-emergency transport. Patients are not required to get dressed, they may travel in the customary hospital gown. Emergency travel differs greatly from a pick-up standpoint, because usually it’s a residence or some other public place where the person has fallen ill or been involved in a some type of accident. There isn’t any planning with emergencies, everything happens very quickly, and every second could literally be a matter of life or death. With emergency situations, the symptoms typically require immediate medical intervention, they could be either very severe or life-threatening.

While non-emergency transportation patients, there isn’t an immediate sense of urgency, but great care is still exercised. From the beginning pick-up point, an experienced nurse accompanies the transportation staff to assist the patient in whatever capacity is necessary, to prepare them for the trip. With state insurance programs, certain guidelines are in place, because the providers have a contract with the transportation company.

Drop off includes waiting for the patient to finish their appointment. Sometimes the transportation involves taking a patient and actually dropping them off at another location, but usually, it’s only for an appointment at another long distance facility such as a different hospital, a diagnostic testing center, clinic, or doctor’s or specialist’s office. Special needs patients who do not require emergency assistance may also receive pick-up and drop-up. This would include anyone with a pacemaker or heart monitor or a patient who is being transferred with a pick-up only when they have a terminal illness or being transported to either a nursing home or a hospice for palliative care.

Patients in these categories are considered non-emergencies because they’ve been stabilized and it isn’t expected that their conditions will change dramatically during the trip to the new facility.