S/o: Hatzala transportation - only Maimonides?

amother

Taupe

Sun, Mar 17 2019, 5:14 pm

amother wrote:

You can always pay privately, and they will take you where you want to go. IMO there is hardly any benefit once you arrive via ambulance. Unfortunately, I have been to several different emergency rooms over the last year and when they triage, they don't seem to give ambulances priority.

You never pay Hatzolah privately.
The members at the scene are volunteers. They will determine if it will be a local transport or not. They do not take any money from any patients. Ever.

amother

Hotpink

Sun, Mar 17 2019, 5:21 pm

amother wrote:

You never pay Hatzolah privately.
The members at the scene are volunteers. They will determine if it will be a local transport or not. They do not take any money from any patients. Ever.

You are wrong. Maybe I am wrong also that you can always pay hatzoula. I was given the option to pay privately when I wanted to go to NYC hospital.

Perhaps the correct statement is sometimes you can pay hatzoulah.

amother

Olive

Sun, Mar 17 2019, 5:29 pm

Can someone please link the thread this is a s/o of?

This really strikes a cord as we had a very upsetting, frustrating story last week.
transport was needed to Manhattan and an outside ambulance company was called. It took an additional 20-30 min to leave because of this.
It wasn't a life & death situation bh but an airway emergency and the risk between needing to head to OR to rectify issue or more easily solve with an ENT in ED.
Also, the EMT on board was not monitoring the patients vitals which was absurd given the situation, and she was just busy 'interviewing' me, which wasn't fair as I was trying to contact doctors. Luckily, I always keep a pulse ox monitor on my stroller which we brought along so I just hooked her up to that.
We couldn't stay local as underlying issue is very rare & we needed to go to hospital where our specialists are.
This was about 5 am so traffic was minimal.

Last edited by amother on Thu, Jun 20 2019, 10:51 pm; edited 2 times in total

amother

Orange

Sun, Mar 17 2019, 6:02 pm

amother wrote:

Hatzolah will transport a critical patient to the nearest hospital. If the patient is stable and the patient's doctors are in Manhattan, either they will transport, or they will arrange for a non-emergency ambulance to transport to Manhattan.
On another note, I have never heard of Hatzolah charging the patient money for a transport (as another another posted).

There was a long thread about the idea of hatzalah charging. I think it was explained that they don't charge the patient at all. They want to bill the insurance company for the medical treatment administered and the insurance company says ok, but there is a co pay or deductible.

amother

Hotpink

Sun, Mar 17 2019, 6:33 pm

amother wrote:

Maybe different hatzoulah companies have different policies. I was told there would be a charge to me off several hundred dollars. I think it was like $450 or $650 to go to a Manhattan hospital and it didn't result in any faster treatment which makes sense when you think about it.

The ER must treat according to need - not who called an ambulance.

amother

Seafoam

Sun, Mar 17 2019, 8:02 pm

I am a wife of a Hatzoloh of Flatbush member.
For the most part, hatzoloh will only transport to a Brooklyn hospital. It doesn't have to be maimonides but that is most common. Sometimes, they will transport to a Manhattan hospital. Each case is evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
That being said, I want to point out the purpose of Hatzoloh. It is really meant for true emergencies. If it were used correctly they're call volume would be a lot less! If a patient is stable enough to be transported to Manhattan then they really should be calling a private ambulance company. There are many available in Brooklyn.
Why is it fair to ask a volunteer to spend 3-4 hours of his time to go out of the way for you? He may have left a job. He may have left a family affair. He may have left in middle of the supper/bedtime mayhem. And even if its 3, 4, 5 am. Who's to say he doesnt have a newborn at home that his wife could use his help with? Who's to say his functional level won't be decreased the next day because he was out in middle of the night? And even if he didn't leave at a bad time (which he should know not to do), but if he expected to be back in time to help but then wasn't because of a long distance transport.
Many times when a volunteer shows up he expects to go to a local hospital and doesn't know he will need to go to Manhattan. He didn't respond knowing it would take 3-4 hrs of his time (once even 6hrs of my husbands time) for a transport.
I'm not trying to tell you not to call when you need them. I'm trying to explain their true purpose. People forget what Hatzoloh is really there for.
I wish people wouldn't need them but am happy to send my husband when he's truly needed.

amother

Lime

Sun, Mar 17 2019, 8:14 pm

amother wrote:

By law an ambulance (unless you call private) has to take you to the nearest hospital unless something isn't available at that hospital. This has nothing to do with hatzalah
Where I live (very very far from NY) we have a hospital close to us that is mediocre at best and that is where an ambulance will always take you. That's why most people drive or take a cab to a further top notch hospital - unless it's literally life or death - instead of taking an ambulance

I also live outside of NY and hatzolah never transports to the closest (mediocre) hospital. One of the main benefits of calling hatzolah here is that you get to the better hospital.

amother

Slateblue

Sun, Mar 17 2019, 8:19 pm

I don’t know about Manhattan hospitals. But I can say that bp hatzala got me into Maimonides and into a dr less than five mins after we arrived. Yes the ED sees you on a basis of urgency. But it takes time till you check in and they can determine urgency. The members were able to go to the proper people, let them know of the urgency, help transfer me into a room etc.
I was hemorrhaging badly and the speed bh prevented me from losing consciousness. No I don’t think that speed could have happened without hatzala.

amother

Scarlet

Sun, Mar 17 2019, 8:27 pm

Quote:

I also live outside of NY and hatzolah never transports to the closest (mediocre) hospital. One of the main benefits of calling hatzolah here is that you get to the better hospital.

I guess it's possible this is something that varies by state, although I thought otherwise.
My DH was on hatzalah in NY and on hatzalah here and the law is closest hospital.
There may be circumstances where they can get away with going further - like another poster pointed out above, if someone had bad burns they could go to a better burn hospital, or if it is a child they can go to a childrens hospital, etc... but otherwise it's always the closest hospital. If an ambulance decided to go further without a good reason and something happened on the way - it's a major lawsuit waiting to happen

And again, this has nothing to do with hatzalah - this is the law in most states for any transport

amother

Bronze

Sun, Mar 17 2019, 8:32 pm

I live Monsey. They bill then insurance. The insurance sent a check which I gave to Hatzolah. Hatzolah didn't collect any other payment from me. I was more than happy that they got paid. We had other emergency calls which they bh resolved quickly.

When I called Hatzolah they evaluated my DC. They informed me that there is a potential life threatening situation. The local hospital doesn't have the equipment necessary to fix the problem. If they take us there and the situation is as bad as it can get, we will have to get transferred at a time where every second counts. Therefore they took us to Westchester where bh an x-ray ruled out everything.

Fyi- the only way I was able to go to Westchester was by ambulance. My insurance won't cover a walk in for that hospital. Some people have the same problem and are stuck calling for an ambulance when they may not really need it.

amother

Hotpink

Sun, Mar 17 2019, 8:47 pm

amother wrote:

I walked into an emergency room in NY recently with chest pains. Within 3 minutes I was in a room. They quickly started telemetry and an IV. I don't think I was there 5 minutes before my blood was drawn and they wheeled in an xray machine. There were other people ahead of me in the waiting room. It was only after the doc looked at me and my blood was drawn did they register me.

The ambulance patients were left in the hall.

2 weeks later, I went to the ER because I was bleeding. Hatzoula contained the bleed at my house. I didn't get near the reaction that I did when I was wheeled in on the stretcher than I did when I walked in 2 weeks before to the same ER.

Another time I went to a hospital in Boston .in the 90s. My friends took me. I was having an asthma attack. They took me ahead of a GSW on a stretcher. I got the same treatment I did when I had the chest pains.

I am pretty sure they triage the patients by their medical condition rather than how they arrive in the emergency room.

Maybe someone who works in an ER can confirm. But based on my experiences and common sense, the biggest emergency gets treated the most rapidly. They have protocols in place.

amother

Floralwhite

Sun, Mar 17 2019, 8:54 pm

amother wrote:

Fyi- the only way I was able to go to Westchester was by ambulance. My insurance won't cover a walk in for that hospital. Some people have the same problem and are stuck calling for an ambulance when they may not really need it.

If someone needs an ambulance for that reason, they don't necessarily need to call hatzalah. They definitely should if it's the kind of emergency that halatzala exists for, but otherwise they should call a regular ambulance where a paid EMT can do the same thing.