Transfer of Patient Care Between EMS Providers and Receiving Facilities ENA/ACEP/NAEMSP/NAEMT/NASEMSO Joint Statement-Transfer of Patient Care Between EMS Providers and Receiving Facilities ENA/ACEP/NAEMSP/NAEMT/NASEMSO Joint Statement

Transfer of Patient Care Between EMS Providers and Receiving Facilities ENA/ACEP/NAEMSP/NAEMT/NASEMSO Joint Statement

Pdf Summary

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), along with other organizations, emphasizes the importance of clear communication between emergency medical services (EMS) providers and healthcare providers in order to improve patient safety and integrate EMS with the healthcare system. Verbal communication alone may lead to incomplete and inaccurate documentation, so both verbal and written/electronic forms of communication are necessary. Key information, such as vital signs, treatment interventions, and symptom onset times, must be included in the written or electronic communication. All members of the healthcare team should communicate with mutual respect and ask questions to clarify information. Healthcare facilities should aim to receive transfer reports in a timely manner to facilitate the return of EMS units to service. EMS transfer of care documentation should be treated as part of the patient's medical record and be professional, accurate, and consistent with the final electronic or written EMS patient care report. Copies of medical test results performed by EMS providers should be available to the receiving facility. Developers of electronic EMS patient care reports and health information exchanges should create products that efficiently transfer and preserve documentation in the patient's medical record. In addition to the information exchanged at the time of transfer, the complete EMS patient care report should be available to the receiving facility within a relevant timeframe.

Meta Tag

EMS transport

EMS paramedic

EMS hand-off

EMS report

EMS verbal report

Keywords

American College of Emergency Physicians

clear communication

emergency medical services

patient safety

verbal communication

written communication

vital signs

treatment interventions

healthcare team

medical record