Patient Transportation System (PTS)

Strategic Function: To establish a system within a jurisdiction’s incident command structure that will accommodate the transportation of patients (overwhelming number) in and out of all patient care areas.

Why: In the event of an overwhelming number of people seeking care, traditional patient transport services may not be sufficient to accommodate the need.

Who: Emergency management, chief elected officials, EMS services, non-emergent patient transport services and local mass transit officials.

When: In the event of an overwhelming number of people seeking care, traditional patient transport services may not be sufficient to accommodate the need. Each community will decide, through ongoing assessment, plan development and exercise, the trigger or threshold for each NM MEMS function use and application.

Where: Established within a jurisdiction’s incident command structure.

How: Each community is unique. Disasters, no matter how large are local because all response begins at the local level.  A baseline assessment of your community’s existing capacity of and capability for emergent, non-emergent patient and general transportation is essential as a beginning place for PTS planning.  Emergency planners will integrate the PTS into the community’s mass evacuation and emergency transportation plans in order to avoid duplicate or overlapping requests for transportation resources. The system design must also be able to address all safety and security concerns pertinent to the event. 

• NM MEMS patient transport will be coordinated through the existing patient and general transport systems operating at the state, tribal, and local levels.
• Transportation resources will be adjusted according to the distance between modules, terrain to be covered, weather, the nature of the event, and other variables specific to the location and systems involved.
  
• The emergency planning workgroups, in coordination with the affected medical community will identify, list, and obtain mutual aid agreements with local transportation resources available.
  
• During the event any requests for transport resources will be directed through the appropriate channels of the incident command system.
  
• Planning for patient transport vehicles, other than ambulances, will be necessary during overwhelming medical or patient surge
  

• Are agreements in place between existing patient transport systems and general transport systems to coordinate services if needed?
• Does your community emergency response system utilize incident management?
• Is Transportation integrated into your community’s incident management structure?*
  
  

 

*A sample tool for understanding how to integrate transportation into the community’s incident management structure:

 

 

 

 

 

NM EMS MTUR (Multiple Transport Unit Response) Organizational Chart

Summary
NM MEMS Patient Transportation System (PTS) will be integrated into the jurisdiction incident command structure and is specifically tasked to move patients in and out of all care areas.

Pre-Planning Process for Local Patient Transportation System
The process should include the development of mutual aid agreements with local transportation resources, a vehicle resource list and a pre identified staging area.
Department of Health and Human Services: EMS Pandemic Influenza Planning Checklist - EMS Pan Flu Checklist

Initial Response for Patient Transportation
Describe process including assignment of roles such as transport and logistics officer.
University of Minnesota: Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy - Onondaga County Health Department Appendix I: Alternate Care and Triage

Safety and Security Precautions
Describe precautions needed to ensure patient tracking, confidentiality of records, security for transport, etc…

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