ABA Family Legal Guide

Health-Care Law

Patients' Rights

Emergency Care

How should a patient be transferred?

When the hospital transfers the patient,

• the transport, such as an ambulance, must have adequate equipment and personnel;
• the hospital to which the patient is being transferred must agree to accept the patient; and
• the first hospital must give all the patient's medical records to the second hospital.

In one case, a woman with high blood pressure was in labor when the hospital transferred her to a hospital three hours away. In the woman's condition, it was possible that a cesarean section would have needed to be performed during the transport. The ambulance had neither the equipment nor the staff to perform such an operation. A court found that the transportation was not adequate.