A complete first call is the difference between a unit dispatched immediately and one that waits while somebody chases down a detail nobody wrote on the chart.
Ask anyone who dispatches interfacility transports what actually delays a patient, and truck availability is not the first answer. The first answer is an incomplete phone call.
A transport request that arrives missing three details does not simply start three details late. It goes into a holding pattern while someone calls back, waits for a nurse who is with another patient, and calls again. Twenty minutes of chasing turns into ninety minutes of waiting, and none of it had anything to do with whether a unit was free.
This is a short list. It is worth keeping somewhere you can find it.
What does dispatch need at minimum?
Six things, and none of them require looking anything up:
- Patient name and date of birth
- Where the patient is now — facility, unit, room
- Where the patient is going — receiving facility, and the accepting department if you have it
- How urgent it is
- Any special handling or equipment needs — bariatric, isolation, oxygen, ventilator
- A callback number that reaches someone who knows the patient
That last one is quietly the most valuable item on the list. A callback number that reaches a desk instead of a person is where transports go to sit.
What does dispatch need to send the right unit?
The six items above get a transport into the queue. These decide which truck and which crew:
- Current condition and stability
- Any medications currently infusing — and the rate
- Equipment in use now, or expected to be needed en route
- Airway status, and whether the patient is on a ventilator
- Lines, drains, chest tubes
- Weight, if it is outside the ordinary range
- Isolation precautions
This is what separates a BLS transport from an ALS one, and an ALS one from critical care. Getting it right on the first call means the crew that arrives can actually take the patient. Getting it wrong means a unit arrives, assesses, and has to hand back to a different one.
One line does most of the work: if the ventilator settings might need adjusting during the trip, say so explicitly. That single detail changes the level of transport, and it is the one most often left out.
What paperwork has to travel with the patient?
For an interfacility transfer, Illinois requires written orders from the transferring physician or physician designee for every fluid and medication going with the patient. Not a verbal handoff at the door — written.
Also send: current vitals and the most recent assessment, the transfer summary or face sheet, insurance information, and any advance directive or POLST.
If this is a non-emergency transport, a Physician Certification Statement may be required, and the rules about who can sign it are broader than most people realize — discharge planners are on the list of authorized signers when the attending physician is unavailable. We cover that here: What a Physician Certification Statement Is, and When You Need One.
How far ahead should I call?
Earlier than feels necessary. A scheduled discharge transport booked the morning of will usually happen; one booked the afternoon before will happen more predictably and at a time you chose.
The real argument for calling early is not the truck. It is that early calls surface missing paperwork while there is still time to fix it. A PCS that turns out to be missing at 9am is an inconvenience. At 4:30pm on a Friday it is a patient spending an extra night.
What actually slows a transport down once it is booked?
The recurring causes are consistent and most of them are fixable upstream:
- Incomplete information at the time of the call
- Vascular access that is not adequate for the trip
- An unstable airway or blood pressure that has to be addressed before departure
- Receiving facility bed availability
- Medication orders that were not written down
A crew arriving to find no written orders for an infusing drip cannot simply proceed. They will wait for the order, and the clock runs the whole time.
Does distance change what I should tell you?
It changes what matters. On a short transfer between neighbouring facilities, marginal access or a borderline airway is a smaller problem. On a run from the Illinois Valley to a Peoria or Champaign receiving hospital, a line that was adequate at the bedside for ten minutes is a different proposition for an hour on the road.
If the trip is long, say so early. It changes how the crew prepares and occasionally which crew comes.
Who should be making the call?
Whoever has the chart in front of them, or can reach it in under a minute.
That sounds obvious and it is regularly not what happens. A call placed by someone reading a sticky note produces a callback within five minutes every time. It is faster to wait for the person who knows the patient than to start with someone who does not.
Related reading
- What a Physician Certification Statement Is, and When You Need One — when a PCS is required, who can sign it, and how long it stays valid.
- What to Expect When a Family Member Is Transported — the same process, written for families rather than staff.
Need a transport arranged?
Stark County Ambulance runs eight stations across five Illinois counties, which means a unit is usually closer than you would expect — the Illinois Valley, the Peoria area and Champaign–Urbana are all covered from inside the region rather than dispatched into it.
We handle BLS, ALS and critical care transport, and our dispatch answers 24/7. More on interfacility transport.
Contact Stark County Ambulance to arrange a transport, confirm paperwork, or ask which level of care fits. Contact us or see our services.