patients are generally liable for the call-out or transfer fee unless:
they have an ambulance Victoria subscription, or,
it is covered by TAC or workcare, or,
the transfer is from one hospital to another hospital for clinical reasons (not preference reasons) - these are generally charged to the referring hospital
patients who wish to be transferred from one hospital to another hospital by ambulance for reasons other than clinical must be made aware that they are liable for the cost, and they must sign the “patient initiated transfer form”
as of July 2014 excl GST:
attendance but no transport $481
non-emergency road transport:
metro: $301 stretcher or $99 clinic car
regional and rural: : $509 stretcher or $99 clinic car
NB. Ambulance Victoria is solely responsible for determining which resource is used to transport a patient
NPT transport fees
road transport fees depend upon type of transport and distance traveled and whether metro or regional
as at July 2014:
ambulant patient within Melbourne metro: $80 for 1st 40km then $3.90/km thereafter
wheelchair patient within Melbourne metro: $100 for 1st 40km then $4.20/km thereafter
stretcher within Melbourne metro: $220 for 1st 40km then $4.50/km thereafter
bariatric within Melbourne metro: $350 for 1st 40km then $5.50/km thereafter
High Acuity Service (HATS) metro: $750 for 1st 40km then $9.50/km thereafter
should we drive lights and sirens?
only 2-3% of ambulance cases pre-hospital in US are for time critical cases and lights and sirens in urban areas only reduce transfer time by 1-4 minutes but dramatically increase risk of a intersection crash
lights and sirens are thus rarely of benefit over risk to the hospital but may be of benefit to the scene
integrated efficient systems vs USA systems
USA has many agencies with different regulations and clinical guidelines fragmented between each state