EMS Providers,

We need your assistance in addressing an important hospital safety and security concern.

Effective immediately, EMS personnel should not allow family members, friends, or other visitors to enter hospital facilities through ambulance entrances or other restricted EMS access points.

Ambulance entrances are secured areas intended for EMS personnel, patients, and authorized hospital staff. Visitors accompanying or following an ambulance must use the hospital’s designated public entrance and complete the required security screening process.

Please make sure your personnel understand that arriving with an EMS crew does not exempt a visitor from hospital security procedures.

EMS crews should:

• Advise accompanying visitors that they must enter through the hospital’s public entrance.
• Not badge, escort, hold doors open, or otherwise provide visitors access through secured ambulance entrances.
• Direct visitors to the appropriate security screening location.
• Contact hospital security when unusual circumstances arise or when assistance is needed.

These procedures are in place to protect patients, hospital staff, EMS personnel, and visitors. Bypassing established security screening creates an unnecessary vulnerability within emergency departments and other secured areas of the hospital.

We ask EMS agency leadership to please share this reminder with all operational personnel and reinforce the expectation during shift briefings and other appropriate communications.

Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter and for your continued cooperation with our hospital partners.