Hospital Transfer Services

Patient Transfer Service was developed to better serve the needs of patients within our region, to improve access, and to facilitate patient transfers and direct admissions from area hospitals and community physicians.

Transferring Patients to Baystate Medical Center and Baystate Children's Hospital

Baystate Medical Center

Call

Toll free number 1-877-790-2345 is available for direct admission and transfer requests.

How Patient Transfer Works

Experienced Patient Placement Managers (RNs) will manage your patient transfers and direct admission calls, and coordinate care between referring facility and the accepting physician.

When a transfer call or direct admission request is received, the Patient Placement Manager will page the appropriate physician identified to accept the transfer. Within fifteen minutes, the Patient Placement Manager will coordinate a three-way conference call between the requesting MD and accepting MD. Once the physician has accepted the transfer, the Patient Placement Manager will verify the level of care, locate the appropriate bed, facilitate coordination of patient transportation, initiate follow up communication with the referring organization or physician, and facilitate patient transfer to a Baystate Health hospital when the bed is available.

We look forward to working with you, and to receiving your feedback as we move forward with the Patient Transfer Service. Please don't hesitate to contact Alicia Meacham, Program Director at 413-794-1709 with questions about this service.

Team Includes

  • Patient Placement Manager
  • Receives calls
  • Collects patient information
  • Facilitates handoff between MDs via conference line
  • Conducts bed search
  • Communicates with Admitting

Referring MD

  • Provides clinical information for triage
  • Hand-off to accepting MD

Accepting MD

  • Communicates with referring MD within 15 minutes
  • Evaluates and accepts transfer

Admitting

  • Collects patient information and confirms financial coverage pre-arrival
  • Provides follow up communication to referring facility and/or ambulance service
Baystate Children's Hospital

Call

To directly admit or transfer a pediatric patient to Baystate Children's Hospital, call 413-794-KIDS (413-794-5437)

How Patient Transfer Works

  1. Patient placement will set up a three way call with the resident holding the admission pager (the “Grid master”). The Grid master may need to first discuss the patient with the charge nurse and/or hospitalist on-call to determine whether there is a bed/staff available, and whether this is the appropriate level of care.
  2. The Grid master lets the charge nurse know about the admission and the patient is added to the bed board for patient tracking on the unit.
  3. Bed placement should be instructed to call the referring physician and family for the patient to come in after the request has been placed and an encounter made. If there will be a delay in getting a bed, the intermediary disposition (i.e., waiting in the office vs going home first) should be discussed with the referring physician. If the family arrives prior to a bed being available, or if they do not have a care encounter, the process will be delayed.

The Grid master is your main contact on the day of admission. After the day of admission, please call 413-794-2398 to be connected with the attending hospitalist caring for an admitted patient.

Conditions not appropriate for direct admission

  • Being in respiratory distress / increased work of breathing
  • Recent seizures, loss of consciousness, or change in mental status
  • Concerns for cardiac problems
  • Concerns over sepsis
  • Immediate need for antibiotics, intravenous fluids, oxygen or respiratory treatments
  • Bleeding from any site
  • Acute traumatic injury

For non-elective admissions, patients will need to have been seen by a health care provider on the day of admission.

Team Includes

  • Patient Placement Manager
  • Receives calls
  • Collects patient information
  • Facilitates handoff between MDs via conference line
  • Conducts bed search
  • Communicates with Admitting

Referring MD

  • Provides clinical information for triage
  • Hand-off to accepting MD

Grid Master/ On-call pediatric hospitalist

  • Communicates with referring MD within 15 minutes
  • Evaluates and accepts transfer

Admitting

  • Collects patient information and confirms financial coverage pre-arrival
  • Provides follow up communication to referring facility and/or ambulance service

Additional Contacts

Pediatric Chief Resident or Hospitalist On-Call: 413-794-0000
Infants and Children’s Charge Nurse: 413-794-3410

Back to Top