Interfacility Transfers

This decentralization also leads to other challenges in the prehospital environment. One issue that needs to be addressed is interstate travel for interfacility transfers and EMS responders going out of state for disaster response. Many questions arise when prehospital providers travel out of the region, into another state’s jurisdictions. Who is responsible for medical oversight of state? If a different medical director is responsible, do they assume liability? In the case of interfacility transfers, 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 (Interfacility, 2006, p. 12). However, establishing who is responsible for medical direction can be confusing. For example, “online medical direction may be provided by the referring physician, accepting physician, the transferring agency medical director, the medical director’s proxy for some specialty care issues, or some combination of the above” (Interfacility, 2006, p. 12). To avoid possible confusion or differences of opinion regarding who …show more content…
As the director, I would establish national EMT and paramedic standards. These measures would provide the ability to send the closest EMS units regardless of jurisdictions or state lines. In the United States, this system would have an added benefit at the local level by creating seamless responses, improving response times by minimizing distance traveled and improving patient care. Once a disaster has is declared, the national medical direction is already established therefore providing paramedics and EMTs the ability to travel interstate, enabling more responders to be