Scenario: You have a patient who is not capable of signing his/her patient report.

Referring to your Required Signature Matrix (available as a PDF on the ePCR Toughbook!), you’ll see that you need four signatures and one is from the patient for HIPAA Release and Authorization for Billing.

How can a patient who is not capable of signing actually sign the report, then? (S)he cannot. The signature, then, falls on you to do with the status of Not Signed (Reason). Why does this make sense? Does this mean you are accepting responsibility for billing?

The short answer is no.

The longer answer, courtesy of EMS-Ops, is this: This is all done under implied consent.  The authorization to treat and release for billing can be completed by the provider when the patient cannot offer informed consent, based on the patient’s medical needs.  It is the same authorization we get to do the actual treatment and share patient information with the hospital.

Scenario: An AFRA does an EKG and a set of vitals on a patient, and then turns the patient over to an ALS transport unit for the transport (and the rest of the patient report) Each set of data from the two LifePaks may be uploaded and then both pay be imported into the same patient report.

• Import the first data set from MCELITE into the patient report.
• Import the second data set from MCELITE into the patient report.

The most important part of the that, for the person importing the data, is to look at the name of the LifePak/Unit in MCELITE before downloading.

There are two types of validation rules:

• Closed Call Rules — You may not post the patient report without filling in these fields. Note the circle with a slash on the right side of the validation rule.
  

• Non-Closed Call Rules — You may post the patient report without filling in these fields (but ask yourself if the quality of the report is suffering without the data before you post). Note that there is no circle with a slash on this one.
  

Note: Of course, you should be adding all relevant details from the call into your report (required or not). Please refer back to your training about report-writing and narratives for proper technique.

Scenario: The rookie on your shift hurt himself doing something too embarrassing to note here. It’s not serious enough of an injury to go to the hospital but you are taking him to FROMS. FROMS isn’t listed along with the hospitals in Elite.

The destination name you should choose is Other Facility – 888. The same applies if you are going to any hospital not listed. Please remember to provide the extra detail in your narrative.

Scenario: You begin an Elite report while transporting and you want to add in your updated times at the hospital automatically. Here’s how:

• Click the CAD button again within the report.
  

• Note the following pop-up dialog message:
  

• Click the Reload Current button and your times will update without affecting the rest of your patient report.