New policies requiring ambulances to respond quickly and specifying that, in most cases, an ambulance is to take a patient to Trigg County Hospital were approved when the hospital Board of Trustees met Thursday at the hospital’s conference room.

Board Chairman Mike Goss said that the policies had been previously approved by the hospital’s Medical Executive Committee.

The policy states that Trigg County Emergency Medical Service will respond to all emergencies within three minutes of when units are available, with mutual aid to be called from one of the surrounding counties when ambulances will not be available within 10 minutes.

The policy also outlines the types of patient conditions that the ambulance could respond to and details whether or not those patients should be brought to Trigg County Hospital, taken to other area hospitals or transferred to other hospitals by helicopter.

The policy states that all non-emergency patients will be taken to Trigg County Hospital and will not be transported out of county, even if their primary care physician is out of town.

Additionally, the policy states that Trigg County EMS will not be allowed to transport non-emergency patients if a backup ambulance is not available.