The regional medical director has published two temporary patient care protocols to manage a suspected or known COVID-19 patient which are effective today, April 2, 2020.
One of the temporary protocols relates to the treatment and transport of a highly suspected or known COVID-19 patient; the other provides an option for non-transport of a highly suspected or known COVID-19 patient who can remain at home and use self-care. The non-transport option is meant to allow you to manage your agency resources, protect your EMS provider resources, as well as prevent over-whelming hospital facilities should the quantity of calls and cases increase dramatically. There are two tiers discussed in terms of implementation. When call-volumes and agency resources allow, there is an optional/recommended non-transport. However, as resources become strained or in times of severe call volumes, there could be an option for outright refusing transport in some cases. This decision, obviously, will be left to the agency leadership and the OMD as to when those levels have been reached. There is a PDF flow-chart attached which summarizes all of the changes related to COVID-19 and is meant to be a one-page reference tool to display in a station or on a unit.
Finally, there is also a Word file attached which contains a non-transport form. This is a reference or resource for any agency (feel free to edit and add your information) to use in place of the traditional patient refusal form which can be problematic as it mentions non-transport being AMA. In this case, it is BASED on medical advice.
Temporary Respiratory Treatment Protocol
