O.K. So, here is the story: The hospital determined that the man in the parking lot was getting the emergency care that he needed. They required than an ambulance transport him the their ED, where they immediately treated him. Do I agree with this? No! However, it was not a case of a rafusal to treat due to inability to pay. The man was getting the immediate care he needed from the police. Yes, his ED care was delayed and that was unfortunate.
The hospital where I work sends its "crash team" to any location on hospital property in the same manner that it is sent to a location inside the hospital. It goes to parking lots.
But, when we transfered a patient to the University of Colorado hospital, when it was located next door to us, we were required to transfer that patient by ambulance. It was considered improper care to transfer by any other means. NOTE: Our two hospitals were seperated by a 20 foot paved alley. Yes the buildings were set back a few feet from the alley.
On an interesting point: The hospital that employes me is limited to giving care to veterans who have qualified to recieve care from us. We do NOT serve the general population. If you haved not qualified to recieve care from us, you are not supposed to get it. However, we provide care, in an emergency situation, to anyone on our property. We may bill them later and at a much reduced rate. Or we may not. But, we provide care.
A few months back a relative of a patient in surgery informed me that she was having chest pains. She spent the next several hours in our ED undergoing both labortory tests and radiology workups before we sent her home.
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Topic: Portland Adventist Medical Center in the News...and Not in a Good Way (Read 19081 times)
