POLICY STATEMENT:

Ambulance patients are transported to the OSF St. Joseph Medical Center Emergency Trauma Center on a daily basis. The EMS agency may replace disposable medical supplies with like items from the Emergency trauma Center on an item per item basis for patients transported to OSF St. Joseph Medical Center.

GOAL/PURPOSE:

To insure the item per item replacement of disposable medical supplies for patients transported to OSF St. Joseph Medical Center.

POLICY/PROCEDURE:

A. The EMS agency may replace disposable medical supplies with like items from the Emergency Trauma Center on an item per item basis for patients transported to OSF St. Joseph Medical Center.

B. After arrival at OSF St. Joseph, medical supplies should be restocked from the supplies stored in the ambulance cabinets/shelves located at the Emergency Trauma Center Ambulance Entrance, between the two sets of automatic doors.

C. Supplies taken from the ambulance cabinets/shelves should be restocked from the Emergency Trauma Center's locked storage room. An "EMS Supply Replacement" form should be completed by the EMT responsible for restocking the supplies. Forms are located in the lower left file drawer below the EMS radios in the "Supply Replacement" file.

D. Forms should include the date the supplies were used, the patient's name, the name of the EMS Agency, the patient's hospital admission number (obtained from the Emergency Department Unit Secretary) and the signature of the EMT replacing the supplies. The EMT should also document the quantity of supplies used on the patient. If the supply is not listed on one of the forms, the EMT should write the name of the supply and the quantity on the appropriate form. If an item has a sticker, the sticker can be given to the nurse or technician. Do not use both the sticker and the form for replacement. The patient could be charged two times for the items. Give the sticker to the appropriate ED personnel.

E. Completed forms should be given to the Emergency Department RN or Technician. The EMT should Accompany the ED staff members to the storage room for the replacement supplies. Only those supplies used on patients transported to OSF St. Joseph Medical Center shall be replaced.

F. EMS Agencies are encouraged to carry a sufficient supply of equipment so that immediate restocking of non-disposable equipment is not necessary in most cases. Agencies are also encouraged to clearly label their equipment with the agency name so that the equipment may be retrieved at a later date.

G. If there is not a sufficient supply of replacement equipment (i.e. MAST), agencies should wait until the equipment is released by the Emergency Department staff.

H. EMS Agencies are strongly discouraged from replacing their equipment with another ambulance services equipment. Any individual doing so may be subject to disciplinary action by the EMS System.

I. EMS personnel should properly clean and disinfect non-disposable equipment after each patient use.