EMS Transportation of Patients to Alternate Sites White Paper

EMS Transportation of Patients to Alternate Sites

The current Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has put stress on healthcare providers all over the world. In addition, patients are crowding (and often overcrowding) healthcare facilities and especially Emergency Departments (ED) located in those facilities.

In an effort to reduce the number of patients being transported to emergency departments that could receive appropriate care at an alternate (non-emergency department) medical facility, the Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Services (OEMS) is providing guidance in the form of a white paper to both EMS agencies and facilities considered to be allowable destinations for ambulance transports under the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidance.

The white paper includes guidelines for agencies transporting patients to alternative sites, the protocols that outline the transportation options, funding for transportation to an alternate site, as well as further considerations for transportation to an alternate site.

Questions related to the transportation of patients to alternative sites by EMS agencies may be forwarded to Tim Perkins, Manager of the Division of Community Health & Technical Resources (CHaTR) at tim.perkins@vdh.virginia.gov.

Read the EMS Transportation to Alternate Sites White Paper for additional information and guidance.