Patient definition

[txketch]

What are your current systems definition of a patient?

Sleeping in a vehicle on the road 3rd party caller?

3rd party call well fare check at residence?

Patient did not call ems someone else did?

If they are not a patient what sort of documentation do you use in your PCR? Cancelled call? No patient found?

Just curious

Thanks

[stcommodore]

What are your current systems definition of a patient?

Sleeping in a vehicle on the road 3rd party caller?

3rd party call well fare check at residence?

Patient did not call ems someone else did?

If they are not a patient what sort of documentation do you use in your PCR? Cancelled call? No patient found?

Just curious

Thanks

Non-Patient Protocal Typically applies to MVC's where there was a third party caller and the person(s) presenting claim no injury and there is no MOI that would suguest one acquire a refusal.

In urban EMS "non-patient" is typically expanded to include the "homeless person sleeping" that someone calls in and on arrival the homeless person is actually sleeping and doesn't want EMS. We've used "Non-Patient" for lift assists, nonsense calls by a third party where the person has no need for EMS but you want to cover yourself with documentation.

We also expand this category to the area of "walked away", "gone on arrival", or "handled by police" for those drunks you wake up on the street and who then get up and leave. Or police related calls where there are no actual injuries.

[CBEMT]

Don't have one.

[paraloco]

Don't have one.

We add notes in the dispatch screen on the mdc without generating a report #. Notes such as: resident inadvertently activated lifeline device, Residence/vehicle unoccupied-driver fled on foot per bystanders, resident requests assistance to potty chair, PD matter, etc. It shows we actually checked into what the situation was, but did not initiate care.

[HERBIE1]

What are your current systems definition of a patient?

Sleeping in a vehicle on the road 3rd party caller?

3rd party call well fare check at residence?

Patient did not call ems someone else did?

If they are not a patient what sort of documentation do you use in your PCR? Cancelled call? No patient found?

Just curious

Thanks

We have protocols as to what to do when patient contact is initiated, but a "patient" is only defined as someone who requests our medical services. Pretty vague, but as we know, it would be impossible to write a rule or SOP for every conceivable situation. At some point we need to use the common sense we were born with along with our medical training and experience.

Well, I think in many cases, definitions like this are intentionally vague for legal reasons. I would also distinguish between patient and patient contact. To me, a patient is someone or someone else- who requests medical care for someone unable to ask for themselves. That would mean that a 3rd party call that was a mistake, a homeless guy merely sleeping, an uninjured MVC victim who only wanted the police for a report, an invalid assist, would not really be a "patient". If a person says I did not call, I am not ill, and I do not want or need EMS, then is that person really a "patient"?

Obviously a lawyer would probably disagree with those assumptions, but in a busy urban system, if you had to generate a full report, a full set of vitals, perform a complete exam, obtain a complete medical history, and document a refusal for every one of those situations, the entire system would grind to a halt.

Write a brief note to appropriately explain the situation and move on.