St. Marys Ambulance Service Public Notice: Inter-Facility Ambulance Transports

Public Notice: Inter-Facility Ambulance Transports

To our community and healthcare partners,

Our primary mission is to provide timely, high-quality emergency and non-emergency medical care. To ensure the most efficient use of resources during hospital-to-hospital transfers, please take note of the following guidelines:

• Scope of Service: These guidelines apply exclusively to inter-facility (hospital-to-hospital) transports. They do not affect emergency 911 responses, which continue to be dispatched based on each municipality’s designated emergency service to ensure the fastest possible response time.

• Membership Honors: We remain committed to our members. If you are a current subscriber, your membership benefits will be fully honored for all qualifying inter-facility transports.

• Your Right to Choose: We want the public to understand that you have the right to choose your ambulance provider for non-emergency inter-facility transfers. This applies to current members as well as non-members.

• Provider Allocation: If a specific ambulance service is not requested by the patient or their family, the transport may be assigned to the first available appropriate unit or a contracted service provider to ensure there are no unnecessary delays in care.

• Direct Requests: To ensure you receive transport from your preferred provider, please make a specific request at the time the transfer is being arranged. The transferring facility should ask the patient if they are a current member of a specific service, if so they will contact that service. If you are not a current member of an ambulance service, this is time you should make your request for a specific ambulance.

• Service Sustainability: Please remember that your local ambulance service relies on these inter-facility transportation services as a means of income. This revenue is essential for the ongoing sustainability of our operations, allowing us to maintain the equipment, staffing, and readiness required to provide emergency 911 services to our community 24/7.

We appreciate your trust and cooperation as we work to keep our community safe and our ambulances available for those in need.

This statement is made in cooperation with the following EMS agencies: St. Marys Area Ambulance Service, Ridgway Ambulance Corporation, Fox Township Ambulance, Cameron County Ambulance Service, Brockway Area Ambulance Inc., Jefferson County E.M.S, and Wilcox Volunteer Fire Department Ambulance.