Why are people still transporting Adult medical codes?

[Chris Smith]

See the above. If your still transporting asystolic/non-shockable rhythmns do explain why...

[HERBIE1]

See the above. If your still transporting asystolic/non-shockable rhythmns do explain why...

I think that's a question you need to ask the medical directors of those systems, not the crews who merely follow their protocols.

[zmedic]

I think that's a question you need to ask the medical directors of those systems, not the crews who merely follow their protocols.

I agree with not transporting asystole. But your patient who is in PEA, are you sure the heart isn't moving? Or could they have a pressure of 35mHg. What about those Hs and Ts that you can't easily diagnosis or deal with in the field (tampondae, hyperkalemia etc).

Sure most of these patients aren't coming back, but I think PEA should generally be transported. Asystole should not be.

[Happiness]

The reason I still tranposrt a pt that is basically dead is because they dont meet the "Do not Tranport" senerio

[JPINFV]

I agree with not transporting asystole. But your patient who is in PEA, are you sure the heart isn't moving? Or could they have a pressure of 35mHg. What about those Hs and Ts that you can't easily diagnosis or deal with in the field (tampondae, hyperkalemia etc).

Sure most of these patients aren't coming back, but I think PEA should generally be transported. Asystole should not be.

Here's the problem I have with transporting because of H and Ts. Even if transport is immediate, how long has the patient been down prior to arrival? Now add on scene time (assessment, initial management, packaging, moving to ambulance), transport time, transfer of care (ambulance to bay, patient to gurney, report), and initial assessment. Now how viable is the patient who has been in arrest that entire time?

[paramedicmike]

According to the people who did the billing at one place I worked, you can't bill for the call if you don't transport.

They didn't like me much. They couldn't bill for a good number of the codes I ran because I called them.

Otherwise, you need to talk to your medical director.

[JPINFV]

According to the people who did the billing at one place I worked, you can't bill for the call if you don't transport.

They didn't like me much. They couldn't bill for a good number of the codes I ran because I called them.

Otherwise, you need to talk to your medical director.

Nothing should be stopping them from being able to bill the estate directly for the care provided.

[armymedic571]

Two reasons.......

1. Medical Directors still make providers bring dead people in, so that they can determine that they are.......dead.

2. Uneducated/Under-educated or unsure providers are too wrapped up in "what if's" than science and safety.......

But that's justmy anecdotal self speaking.........

[romneyfor2012]

The same reason ER doctors order a CT on every patient with a bump to the head, the LAWYERS. The public has been educated by TV and Movies that every patient magically is saved in the ER. Medics have been sued for failure to transport because the family believed they took away their only chance of survival.

Is it right ? No

And then occasionally you read that story where medics declare someone dead, and then have to go back and work the patient when the coroner or funeral home found a pulse or saw the patient breath.

[paramedicmike]

Nothing should be stopping them from being able to bill the estate directly for the care provided.

Sure. You can send a bill to the estate of the deceased. Collecting on that bill, in every area I've worked, has been an exercise in futility.

It was explained to me that insurance won't pay if there's no transport. As insurance was a more reliable means of collecting something out of a cardiac arrest we were told to transport all codes.

If I've been provided with incorrect information regarding insurance billing of cardiac arrests I'd be interested in reading more correct information.