RULES AND REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE AMBULANCE SERVICE THE BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN
                                                                                                   JULY 1902

1. All districts have been abolished, and the police have been directed to notify the ambulance surgeon nearest the case demanding the services of a surgeon.

2. In order to avoid unnecessary strain upon the horses of the service, the police will notify the surgeon whenever the ambulance is needed for transportation of the patient. If the services of the surgeon only are required, he may attend the call in a light wagon

3. No ambulance is to be sent in response to a call unless it is in charge of a surgeon possessing the qualifications prescribed by law for hospital internes. Ambulance surgeons must be appointed by the Board of Health and must always be on duty unless relieved by properly qualified substitutes.

4. Although unnecessary delay is to be avoided, ambulances must not be driven through the streets at such a speed as to endanger the lives or limbs of the public. The bell is to be rung only in crowded thoroughfares and as a means of clearing the way, the city ordinances giving an ambulance the right of way as against any person, carriage, or incumbrance. It is the duty of the police to enforce this ordinance.

5. When called to a case, the ambulance surgeon should not attempt to do more than relieve urgent symptoms, after which he must exercise his discretion as

6. In all cases of apparent alcoholism the possibility of the existence of other abnormal conditions should not be forgotten, and the patient should be given the benefit of every doubt and be removed.

7. If removal is deemed advisable, the patient must be taken to his home, or to the hospital preferred by him if he expresses any choice as to destination, without interchanging; otherwise the patient must be taken to the nearest hospital.

8.  When death occurs in transit, the body should be taken home if the residence of the deceased is known; otherwise to the morgue. When death occurs before the arrival of the ambulance, the body should not ordinarily be removed; but this rule may be violated whenever, in the opinion of the ambulance surgeon, he can serve any good purpose by the removal of the dead body.

9. In a case of removal to the Borough of Manhattan, the surgeon must arrange by telephone to have an ambulance meet him at the farther end of the bridge, so that the transfer of the patient may be accomplished with the least possible delay.

10. If the appropriate hospital should refuse to receive, or should delay unnecessarily the reception of a case requiring prompt attention, the ambulance surgeon will telephone to the Department for instructions, or if that office is closed, to the residence of the Assistant Sanitary Superintendent.

11. All orders to remove patients from one point to another, other than emergency cases, must emanate from the Department of Health. Such calls must be responded to promptly as though emergency work.

12. For their services, ambulance surgeons are forbidden to ask or accept any fee whatsoever.

13. Before returning from a call, the ambulance surgeon will write down in duplicate on slips provided for that purpose, the date, time, origin, and location of the call, the name, residence, age, nativity and occupation of the patient, and the diagnosis and disposition of the patient. One of the slips is to be signed and given to the police officer in attendance on the case; the other is to be retained by the surgeon, who will add to it later the time of retur

14. As soon as possible after the first of each month, ambulance surgeons will send to the Department of Health, in the Borough of Brooklyn, on official forms, a report of the previous months calls.

15. Immediately before leaving in response to a transfer call, and immediately after returning from all calls, ambulance surgeons will notify Police Headquarters.