Wait-And-Return Calls

A walkthrough of how AngelTrack handles wait-and-return calls in the dispatch system, billing System, and crew side

A wait-and-return dispatch is a round-trip transport in which the assigned crew remains at the destination with the patient, and then brings him or her back to the origin. The crew is not free to run another call -- i.e. the patient must remain on the stretcher -- until time to be transported back home.

AngelTrack's wait-and-return feature simplifies the process of dispatching such trips.

These are the icons for wait-and-return dispatches:

Outbound
Outbound emergent
Outbound critical
Return

Benefits of Using Wait-and-Return

AngelTrack automates some aspects of wait-and-return dispatches, making the dispatcher's job easier. For the reasons listed below, we strongly recommend using wait-and-return dispatches -- rather than round-trip dispatches -- whenever a crew will be remaining with the patient during his or her stay at the destination. AngelTrack will programmatically automate many complicated aspects of recording the data about the call, including some billing information.

Automatic creation of return trip

There is no need to book or maintain a return-trip record; the return-trip record is created automatically (if needed) when the dispatcher closes out the outbound-trip record.

As such, the return-trip does not appear on the dispatch board until the last instant, so that dispatchers need not consider which crew will perform that transport. Instead, dispatchers will see a single trip whose estimated runtime is twice that of normal.

Automatic assignment of return trip

There is no need to assign the return-trip to the crew; it will be assigned automatically -- and the crew marked on-scene -- when the dispatcher closes out the outbound-trip record.

Automatic synchronization of leg times

The leg times are automatically synchronized between the outbound-trip and the return-trip records. The time spent transporting and at the destination for the outbound leg is automatically synchronized with the time spent enroute and on-scene for the return leg because those fields represent the same time intervals, as seen in this example:

In the above call, the outbound trip shows 15 minutes spent at the destination, and the return trip shows the same 15 minutes on-scene.

This feature can cause confusion, because when a crew member marks their leg times on the return trip, AngelTrack will automatically synchronize those with the leg times on the outbound trip, and vice versa, so that the times of both trips perfectly overlap as shown above. This is necessary in case you later bill for standby minutes, or want to pull reports on how much time your crews are spending on wait-and-returns... but it may cause crews to wonder why the leg times on their wait-and-return trips seem to change on their own.

Automatic billing for wait time

When a trip is marked as a wait-and-return, AngelTrack's invoicers can automatically assess a standby-minutes fee for the time the crew spent waiting at the destination with the patient.

"Trip Flip"

During a wait-and-return transport, the crew remains at the destination with the patient, waiting for the invitation to transport him or her back home. When that time comes, the crew notifies Dispatch that they are ready for the return trip by clicking the crew-progress button on their mobile device, which marks the crew back in service. Once that button is clicked, AngelTrack shows the Dispatcher that the wait-and-return dispatch is "awaiting trip flip".

At that point, the Dispatcher need only click the "Complete, as ordered" button on the dispatch board. AngelTrack closes the outbound leg dispatch, assigns the return leg dispatch to the same shift, and marks the crew on-scene.

When the return transport begins, the crew simply clicks their crew-progress button again, to mark themselves 'transporting'. AngelTrack takes care of everything else automatically.

Because of the possibility of billing for time spent waiting with the patient, AngelTrack synchronizes the outbound leg's "minutes spent at destination" with the return leg's "minutes spent on-scene", because those two fields represent the same time interval. For example, consider this round trip:

AngelTrack understands that the outbound trip's "Transporting" leg is the same as the return trip's "Enroute" leg, and likewise the outbound trip's "At destination" leg is the same as the return trip's "On scene" leg. Therefore, it does not matter when the dispatcher performs the trip-flip: the time interval between arriving at destination and transporting back home will always be correctly recorded in both of the dispatches.

Late Designation of Wait-and-Return

You can turn a normal round-trip pair of dispatches into a wait-and-return any time you wish. AngelTrack's automatic wait-and-return features will then apply to it.