Falsifying a run report

[Just Plain Ruff]

Has anyone run this type of call.

call to the local er for a transport from the ER to the local nursing home. Patient was ambulatory in the ER and did not require assistance from you to get from the er cot to the EMS cot.

You write the report like it happened and a few day's later you are called into the supervisors office to re-write your report in essence falsifying the report by saying that you did more assistance than you originally did.

(this personally happened to me)

What did you do?

What should you do?

[Eydawn]

Refuse to falsify any documentation whatsoever, and if they press you to, get a lawyer.

I will not falsify my trip sheets or any other pertinent documentation for any patient interactions I have. That's a good way to lose one's job long-term.

Wendy

CO EMT-B

[Just Plain Ruff]

by no means did I falsify the run report. There's a lot more to the story that I intentionally left out to keep the indentifying service info private.

I know it's illegal but I know this happens more than you might think.

As a matter of fact, my wife's cousin came to me just in the past month or so asking me what she should do.

[Ridryder 911]

I document the facts. Now, with that statement, did the patient have stable gait, increasing ShOB with exertion, had to grasp objects while attempting to walk, was the patient confused and would grab door handles, etc?

Again, attempting to paint a picture why EMS was needed.

I also ask what the physician PCR form stated why the patient required stretcher? Oxygen, monitoring for safety, etc.

I know of medics that had to make a professional choice of a job or falsification, I know it is a hard decision, but I much rather do the right thing and also keep my license and integrity. I would definitely address my discomfort and consider some choices.

R/r 911

[EMS49393]

Ahhh, the days when I worked private ambulance. I try hard to block that period of my life out of my memory.

Yes, I have run this call, numerous times. Yes, I have been asked to re-write a report and falsify documentation to meet medicare approval. I refused to falsify documentation. I was threatened with my job. I went above the supervisors head and cited the story of the ambulance company that once was, and is no more because of medicare fraud.

I worked private ambulance in the Greater Baltimore City region for many years. I spent most of that time with one company, they shall remain nameless, and they still exist. There was another company, perhaps the largest rival of the company I was employed with. By huge, I mean they were HUGE. They had the largest hospital system contract, they had numerous ALS trucks, and three or four critical care transport units. They also had a crooked owner that had a gambling and drug problem. They billed for fictious transfers, they double and triple hauled ambulatory dialysis patients that they individually billed medicare for. Eventually, they were caught. Not only did they lose the ability to bill medicare, every other insurance company refused to allow them to perform services. They were also fined, in the several million dollar range. In the end, they had two or three BLS trucks left of the fleet, and were only able to take medicaid calls at a whopping $70 a pop.

The moral of the story... Go ahead and falsify documents because you're not strong enough to stand up to your boss and say something is wrong. In the end, you'll lose your job anyway when the powers that be figure out who is cheating them.

There are always other jobs.

[Scaramedic]

In one system I worked at we had a Nursing home right across the street from a hospital ER. It was not uncommon to transport from the nursing home to the ER. Literally a distance of about 50ft. So I used to right 50ft on my runsheet. Billing finally caught it and went apeshit saying I couldn't write fifty feet and I needed to change it to one mile.

I refused saying there is no way you can round up 50ft to over 5000 ft. We finally compromised on me writing <1 mile. :roll:

[brentoli]

In one system I worked at we had a Nursing home right across the street from a hospital ER. It was not uncommon to transport from the nursing home to the ER. Literally a distance of about 50ft. So I used to [s:03d77e6065]right[/s:03d77e6065] wrong 50ft on my runsheet. Billing finally caught it and went apeshit saying I couldn't write fifty feet and I needed to change it to one mile.

I refused saying there is no way you can round up 50ft to over 5000 ft. We finally compromised on me writing <1 mile. :roll:

[fallout]

I worked for a private transport system where I was frequently handed physician certification statements that were utterly not the truth.

I always documented what I actually saw about the patient. The truth is, when the fraud search comes through, who is going to defend you? Certainly not the boss who ordered you to change the run report. He is going to be on the next flight to some non-extradition country with his ill gotten gains.

[EMS49393]

I can beat that nursing home to hospital story. GBMC (Greater Baltimore Medical Center) in Towson, MD has a radiation treatment center that is in the same parking lot, less than 25 feet from the main entrance of the hospital, and the sidewalk between the entrance of the hospital to the entrance of the center is covered. I have moved many patients from the hospital under this awning for radiation treatment, and back again. It took longer to walk from the ambulance parking to the main entrance, than main entrance to radiation. :roll:

[JPINFV]

In one system I worked at we had a Nursing home right across the street from a hospital ER. It was not uncommon to transport from the nursing home to the ER. Literally a distance of about 50ft. So I used to right 50ft on my runsheet. Billing finally caught it and went apeshit saying I couldn't write fifty feet and I needed to change it to one mile.

I refused saying there is no way you can round up 50ft to over 5000 ft. We finally compromised on me writing <1 mile. :roll:

Wow, they were trying to require you to round up to a whole mile? When I was working transport, while I had my issues and feelings about the company I worked for, I never caught hell for writing less than a mile (one common transport was 0.4 miles). I was never asked to rewrite a run report either, but I had heard stories about it/billing making changes through the rumor mill. On that note, the quality of some of the run sheets being produced was extremely lacking to begin with.