RE: Prisoner Transports

["Hathaway, Mitch" <HathawayMS@msha.com>]

Randy,

We have a state prison in our service area here in East TN. In the 8 yrs we have been in-service I know of only one occasion when the warden allowed us to rotor-wing transport a prisoner/patient without a corrections officer on board. At other times permission was denied even when it was explained that failure to transport might have grave consequences for the prisoner. On the single occasion this was allowed the prison made arrangements for city PSO’s to assume responsibility for the prisoner until their personnel could arrive by ground. This problem was largely solved for us when we upgraded from the Bell 206 to a 407.

I would not leave a medical crew member behind. If the patient had a poor outcome, coded etc. you and your program could justifiably be accused of lowering your standard of care for this patient and face subsequent liability for same even with the best of intentions. If you are the only ALS service available you might consider accompanying the patient via ground ambulance. Not a perfect solution I realize.

Let me suggest that you review these issues with you administrative folks, medical director, program attorney as well as prison officials and come up with a policy for this eventuality. Much better than making the decision on your own at 3 A.M. some morning.

Hope this is of some help. Good luck.

 

Mitch Hathaway, RN, EMT

WINGS Air Rescue

Johnson City, TN.

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: RANDAL OVCEN [mailto:ROVCEN@broward.org]
Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 1:26 PM
To: flightmed@flightweb.com; will@willwingfield.com
Subject: Prisoner Transports

 

I'm not sure if this topic has been covered but, " what are your policies on transporting prisoners in an helicopter with limited seating?" We have three seats in our EC135, one for the pilot and two for the flightcrew. 

The issues we are facing are:

Does a corrections officer have to fly with the patient?

If not, What security measures are in place at the receiving hospital?
If there isn't room for an officer to ride along should you leave a crewmember behind?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Randy

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