2.16.03 Psychiatric/Mental Patient Transports
2.16.3 Psychiatric/Mental Patient Transports (Revised 10/2020)
OVERVIEW
Amerimed units will respond to requests for transport of psychiatric patients requiring medical treatment en route and/or transport to/from medical or mental facilities. Amerimed crews should be made aware of “10-13” or “20-13” patients. If the patient is too violent for ambulance transport, local law enforcement should be called to assist, or actually perform the transport (most psychiatric facilities will not accept violent patients, so the patient may need to be transported to the ER – if in ER, the receiving psychiatric facility should be contacted to confirm that they will accept the patient).
Amerimed will handle requests of “10-13”, “CON”, or “20-13” patients in a timely manner.
SECTION A
When caller states “10-13”, “603”, “604” “CON”, “20-13”, or other code or terminology indicating orders are present, the Operator should:
1. Ascertain if the patient is involuntary or voluntary
2. Ascertain if original documentation that has been signed by the physician or mental case worker is on hand at the scene, and that it has not expired (good for 72 hours), unless it is a contracted facility, which may honor copied and/or expired documents. In that case, the facility should be contacted to make sure that they will still accept the patient.
3. If documentation is present on scene, advise the Amerimed unit responding. In order for the involuntary documentation to be valid, it must be the original form. The Amerimed unit should continue response but ensure such original orders are present prior to the actual transport being initiated. In the event that the accepting facility claims to have the appropriate paperwork at their facility, then it is appropriate for our crews to obtain a copy of such documentation after arriving at the accepting facility but this should be established while taking the call, and the responding unit must be aware. The accepting facility must be willing to provide a copy of appropriate paperwork to our crews after they arrive with the patient.
4. If documentation should be, but is not present at scene, or if documentation is a photo copy or facsimile copy, the Amerimed unit should not be dispatched until such documentation is available unless otherwise noted above. Advise caller in a courteous manner that transport cannot be completed without required paperwork. Offer to have Amerimed Manager to call to discuss further.
5. It is preferable that female psychiatric patients be transported with a female Amerimed associate, but it is not mandatory. Contact the on-duty supervisor for any issues related to this.
6. Document involuntary status in notes of call on CAD system. If patient is medicated, calm, and non-violent, skip to # 8.
7. If patient is violent or unruly upon our crew’s arrival, on-scene medical control should be utilized to attempt to calm, medicate, or restrain the patient. If there is no on-scene medical control, then the receiving facility’s medical control should be contacted for orders. If the patient is too violent to be transported by Amerimed, then the local police department should be contacted and dispatched to the scene. You should confirm if the receiving facility will still accept the patient if violent.
8. If the patient becomes violent or unruly during transport, Communications staff should dispatch the closest law enforcement agency to their location immediately, and advise all other units to maintain radio silence until the situation is resolved. A supervisor should be contacted immediately, and Communications staff should stay in radio contact with the crew until law enforcement arrives.
9. Advise caller of the estimated time of arrival (ETA) Amerimed unit.
10. All transport times should be recorded in a normal fashion.
SECTION B
Contract Facilities – Long Distance Transports
When a call is received from an associate of a contracted facility requesting a pick up at any location that is more than 45 miles away, you must call the pick-up facility to confirm said patient is at said facility and to advise them we are en route. If they should request an ETA, advise the personnel of the most accurate ETA you can provide using the tools that you have.