You are working in a
community hospital emergency room when a 12-year-old male is brought in
following a snowmobile accident. The child was riding in an open
field and failed to notice a barbed wire fence. He sustained multiple
lacerations to the neck and face.
You stabilize the child's bleeding
and administer tetanus vaccine, but you know that extensive repair to the face
will be necessary. Your emergency room has a general surgeon, but no
plastic surgeon available.
What
arrangements are necessary to transfer the child to a facility 45 miles away,
where plastic surgery consultation is available?
Once medical stabilization is complete the child may be transferred by EMS
to a hospital less than 1 hour away.
Once your medical screening exam is complete and the patient has been
stabilized you may investigate the insurance status of the patient and
transfer to a nearby facility if their insurance authorizes the
transfer.
You must contact the nearby facility and have them accept your patient
before you can transfer.
You can discharge your patient from the emergency room and instruct them
to take the child to a nearby facility where EMTALA regulations will
guarantee that the child will receive services.