The Vanderbilt Discharge Transportation Division of LifeFlight is designed to make the discharge of Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital patients requiring ambulance transportation more efficient.
The office is staffed 24 hours per day, seven days a week. We currently serve the Vanderbilt University Hospital, Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital, Critical Care Tower, Medical Center North / Round Wing, Adult ED, and Medical Center East.
Who We Are
Below is an outline of the primary services we offer to you, the individual caller, and the Medical Center.
- One call to us and we handle the details
- Scheduling of your discharge/transfer in a timely manner
- Insurance preauthorization including
- Amerigroup
- Americhoice
- Tenncare Bluecare
- Tenncare Select
- Healthspring
- Windsor Medicare
- Secure Horizons
- Automatically generated Medical Necessity Form emailed to your inbox within minutes
- Alternative Funding (AT#) transports
- BLS, ALS, Critical Care, Ventilator, and Bariatric Patients
- Long distance via LifeFlight Fixedwing Airplane
- Out of pocket quotes
- Continuous feedback via text pager
With one phone call to our office at 2-RIDE (2-7433) we will make all arrangements for your patient requiring ambulance transportation when being discharged or transferred from Vanderbilt University Medical Center. This includes scheduling, insurance preauthorization, and follow up with timeliness of the ambulance arrival. - At no time should a Vanderbilt employee need to call an ambulance service directly, nor should the ambulance service contact an employee directly. We are here to handle all of those communications.
Helpful Links and Documentation
Find any Health Care Facility in Tennesse via the Tennessee Department of Health Website. Here you can find the full name, address, and phone number, as well as search by several parameters.
Documents
Medicare Ambulance Guidelines for Patients
Medicare Chapter 10 - Ambulance Services
Tennessee DNR/DNI/POST Form - Spanish
Information for Callers
Information For Callers
Primarily our callers are Case Managers and Social Workers throughout the hospital. Any Vanderbilt Medical Center employee that is caring for a patient and is responsible for arranging the patient transportation may utilize this service. Below are general guidelines for callers and what you can expect.
Required Information
When you call for a patient discharge please have the following information ready.
- Patient last name
- Patient Medical Record Number
- Patient Weight
- Patient Room Number
- Special Needs (O2, vent, trach, etc.)
- Isolation Precautions
- Patient Diagnosis that required admission (Not their past medical history unless relevant)
- Primary Insurance Provider
- Destination (There are many similar sounding facility names scattered across the region. Be prepared with the city and state of the destination)
- Requested bedside time
- Limiting Factors (such as meet home health at a certain time. Has to be at destination by certain time)
Process
After your Required Information is gathered call the Discharge Transportation office at 2-RIDE (2-7433). We will ask you the required information from above. After we have entered the information into our database we will email or fax you a medical necessity form. This will be partially filled out with your patient demographics already on it. we will then find the most appropriate ambulance service to transport your patient. After that arrangement is confirmed you will receive a text page confirming patient name, room, and time. This page will also include the name of the ambulance service we scheduled to transport your patient. During the time before the scheduled bedside time please complete the medical necessity form. Have the original medical necessity form, a face sheet, an MAR, and a discharge summary available for the ambulance service. This should be separate from the patient chart for the destination facility. If your patient's insurance requires special paperwork you will receive these forms with instructions in your email. Please complete these and return to us via fax at 3-7271. When the ambulance arrives on the floor of the patient they contact us with that information. We will mark that time and you will receive another text page of the time the ambulance arrived.
Problems and Complaints
If at anytime during the process there is a problem, either with the ambulance service, another staff, another department, or the whole process please call us immediately. We will log the complaint with the transport and follow up on it ASAP. Everything we do is digitally recorded. This includes all phone calls. Every document we print, fax, or email is also logged with date, time, and who performed that action.