How should an ambulance dispatch center handle operations and processes during a pandemic? Ambulance dispatch services are a central operation that must continue during any disaster, including the current day COVID-19 or coronavirus outbreak. As the pandemic continues, questions and uncertainties arise, including how ambulance dispatch center operations and processes should be handled. With ever-changing CDC guidelines, understanding the need for changes and compliance is key.

Accurate ambulance dispatch is critical—it sets the stage for the ePCRs and insurance claims that follow. EMS agencies continue to struggle to make ends meet. The cost of EMS patient care continues to rise, while ambulance reimbursement rates continue to disappoint. In addition, Federal and state regulations continue to multiply. When payers and regulators fail to see the immense value EMS brings to healthcare, economical solutions can be hard to find. This post is the first in a series that we'll be writing this year. Each post will highlight one of ten EMS best practices intended to help your agency revitalize your organization, increase efficiency, and improve revenue.

Delays in EMS ambulance dispatch disrupt the entire EMS patient care process. What begins as a non-issue can easily expand and impact crew resources, transport vehicle resources, patient satisfaction scores, referring agency satisfaction, and above all, patient care. Certainly, some delays are unavoidable due to traffic or other uncontrollable influences. However, given that ambulance dispatch call delays can completely destroy the successful flow of EMS response to emergency and non-emergency scheduled and non-scheduled patient transport requests, the ambulance system must aim to minimize delays.

Fighting and pleading with facilities to get the proper documentation so that you can transport a patient under medical necessity is an age old problem. EMS agencies that handle ambulance dispatch and non-emergency transports often find themselves stuck in the middle, with a facility on one side, Medicare on the other, and the poor patient waiting in the wings. Many facilities don't want to take responsibility or accountability for their part, and Medicare is finally starting the recognize the struggles EMS has with getting facilities to cooperate.