Audit Finds Utah’s Emergency Medical Transport Expensive And Lacking Oversight

When a person in Utah dials 911, their city or county oversees ambulance response. But emergency medical transport (EMS) between hospitals or other facilities is regulated by the state.

Recently, hospitals and others made a number of complaints about the quality of care medical transport companies were providing in those cases.

Complaints ranged from long wait times to unheated ambulances, to faulty wall connections that hindered delivery of oxygen to patients.

For example, one patient reportedly arrived in an emergency department cold and unresponsive. The EMS staff had not hooked the patient up to a monitor and could not say whether an EKG had been performed during transport.

Legislative auditors reviewed those complaints as well as examined how well the current system is working overall. Their report delivered to the Utah State Legislature finds lots of room for improvement. Recommendations included:

• The need for greater accountability, including making it easier for patients, hospital staff and others to file a complaint about an ambulance provider.
• Fines levied or licenses revoked when medical transport providers fail to meet quality standards.
• More scrutiny and transparency of rates. Auditors found the cost for emergency medical transport in Utah was high, compared to the national average and nearby states.

Over the past several months, Voices for Affordable Health has received comments and stories from consumers about ambulance costs and service. Do you have one to share? We make it easy with this link.