EMS operations question

[Guest guest]

The scenario:

3 vehicle MVC, one of the vehicles is a motorcycle. No critical injuries

reported. One of the occupants of a car would like her minor child transported

to the hospital for evaluation. The rider of the motorcycle is indecisive about

being transported by EMS. The child is packaged and is secured in the ambulance,

ready for transport. Only one ambulance is on scene which is staffed by a Medic

and EMT-I. FD is on scene with multiple EMT-B personnel but the FD does not

perform refusal: this is managed by the provider. Delay of transport secondary

to the indecisive adult.

Question: Is there any state or federal code, statute, or law that is being

violated secondary to a delayed transport? My assumption is that common accepted

standards are not being upheld given this scenario.

The scenario progresses:

The adult finally decides to go to the hospital and is placed in the same

ambulance as the minor who was in a different vehicle. The parents of the minor

requested they transport their child to one hospital while the adult requested

to be transported to a different hospital.

Questions: Is there any EMTALA violation once both patients arrive on the

property of the first reached destination? Does this set the transport personnel

up for HIPPA violation secondary to " strangers " being assessed in the presence

of each other?

Post scenario management discussion: It's okay to transport them both in the

same ambulance because they were both non-critical in condition plus, that's

what we have always done.

The trap: That's what we have always done!

(In this organization) There is no clear policy or operating guideline to uphold

neither field making decisions nor management's philosophy of their history when

tasked with these scenarios.

A suggestion of creating a guideline was blown off by management and the medic

was verbally reprimanded for not wanting to delay transport of the minor because

a competent adult could not make a decision. Any advice would be gratefully

appreciated.