Enroute controller voiced concern regarding the handling of a medivac aircraft; providing an example...

Narrative:

A citation I on direct flight. I was advised to re-route aircraft because center could not descend aircraft. Medivac flight 300 miles from destination and I was being informed that a sector; 6 sectors away; could descend aircraft; how would they know what traffic they had at that time? After I gave the route change the next sector 60 miles away gave the aircraft direct the airport again. It was an embarrassing situation being informed by management to give 'much needed routing' to an aircraft only to look like a fool and have the next sector take it away. The flight was a medical emergency; the whole reason to be called medivac [is so] aircraft has priority. There is no reason to move an aircraft for traffic that 'might' exist later.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Enroute Controller voiced concern regarding the handling of a MEDIVAC aircraft; providing an example of the confusion that existed in one such operation.

Narrative: A Citation I on direct flight. I was advised to re-route aircraft because Center could not descend aircraft. Medivac flight 300 miles from destination and I was being informed that a Sector; 6 sectors away; could descend aircraft; how would they know what traffic they had at that time? After I gave the route change the next sector 60 miles away gave the aircraft direct the airport again. It was an embarrassing situation being informed by management to give 'much needed routing' to an aircraft only to look like a fool and have the next sector take it away. The flight was a medical emergency; the whole reason to be called MEDIVAC [is so] aircraft has PRIORITY. There is no reason to move an aircraft for traffic that 'might' exist later.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1061780
Time
Date	201301
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Citation I (C500)
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Enroute
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Enroute controller voiced concern regarding the handling of a medivac aircraft; providing an example of the confusion that existed in one such operation.