Risky Business

If you stand outside any hospital in Canada, you'll probably see all kinds of vehicles picking up patients and dropping them off.

Some say "ambulance", or E-M-S on them. Some just have company names. To the untrained eye, they all look pretty much the same. But they are not. EMS vehicles are for both emergencies, and non-emergencies.

The rest - the look-a-likes - also move patients...but only those in stable condition. They're for "non-emergencies".

So the company that moves you from point A to point B may look like an ambulance. You probably think it IS an ambulance. But it may be something quite different - a "patient transfer vehicle". In most parts of Canada, they are regulated by provincial ministries of health.

But not in Ontario.

In Ontario, the minute you leave the hospital and get into that truck, you're entering the wild west of unregulated care. And your trip may be a Risky Business indeed.

This is a story we brought to your attention last December. This week, congratulations are in order. Our colleagues, radio producers, Tina Pittaway and Neil Sandell, have been awarded a World Gold Medal for Investigative Reporting at the 2010 New York Festival Radio Broadcasting Awards.

For more information on this story go to: www.tinapIttaway.com