Can you tell the ambulance driver which hospital to take you to?

I have had bad experiences with my local trauma center. Mainly, they will not consult with my doctor or my hospital, and vice versa. Things would move more quickly and safely if they got my medical history rather than starting from scratch.

As a result, I ask the EMTs or paramedics to take me to MY hospital, which is not that much farther away. Most times they refuse. Can I insist?

I am so adverse that I ask a friend to take me to the emergency room instead of an ambulance.

— C.S.

DEAR READER » I agree that it is best to get all your care, including emergency care, from the same hospital system. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way.

The first thing I would say is that in a true emergency, you should call an ambulance, not a friend to drive you. This is true for any life-threatening condition or one that could become life-threatening during transport to the hospital, such as a possible heart attack, or if moving the person is dangerous, such as a neck injury.

Those situations should prompt a 911 call. You don’t want your untrained friend to be the only person there if you need emergency intervention.

When the ambulance comes, you can certainly ask to be taken to your hospital of choice, but the paramedic crew has the judgment to determine whether this is safe or violates state or local protocol.

Electronic medical records, despite severe shortcomings, do hold promise for improved communication between different hospital systems. In the meantime, personto-person communication between your attending physician at the trauma center and your regular doctor is still critical, but it takes both parties to be willing to do this.