Have You Ever Falsified An EMS Document ?

[CBEMT]

I wasn't referring to you so much as I was the previous crew. Leaving a clipboard or monitor behind is one thing, but a COT???

But this example just shows to go ya how mistakes happen, even with a trustworthy and diligent crew.

Happened to a guy I know in the city, he thought his partner put it back in the truck, his partner thought he did. They didn't discover the problem until they arrived onscene at a mutual aid run for an MVA. Not only did they not have a stretcher, they were out of town without a stretcher. :oops:

Me personally, I've left a clipboard and first-in bag onscene (nursing home, easy to get back), and 12-lead cables at an ER (never to be seen again). :oops:

[Christopher.Collins]

I agree with you. Many moons ago when I did interfacility, I had employers ask this of me. I refused. To appease them and appease my own standards, I did not lie but I would write this instead:

"Pt assisted to stretcher"

or

"Pt placed on stretcher"

Regardless of their ability to ambulate, I ALWAYS assisted them or placed them on a stretcher.

Let the Medicare denial of claims club interpret however they wish.

Yea thats usually how Ill approach it now. Although I find that most 9-1-1 agencies dont demand or even ask how the patient got on the stretcher I still write it... I find its a relativley imporant piece of information. If you had a fall victim or a severe SOB/diff. breather who walked up to you and sat right down... its deffinatley relivant. Therfore even when told my reports are too long or over-detailed or that Im not working for XYZ Ambulance anymore, I will still always put how the patient got on the stretcher.

But I am carefull in how I word it... because like you Ill always assist in some way and even if you put your hand under their arms, your still assisting them.

[Richard B the EMT]

I had a new partner who left one of our new 2 way radios in a patient's house. He almost got written up for the infraction, and I almost got written up, as the senior guy, for allowing him to leave it! I had told him not to take the radio off his belt.

Anyway, neither of us got written up, as, after the tour (this was the last call, anyway) he went back to the house, and literally staked it out until someone came home, went inside, and gave him back the radio, which he then returned to the hands of the lieutenant threatening to do the writeup.

Those radios, by the way, cost roughly $2,000.00 each.

[EMS49393]

No, but... I do live by the motto "it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission." For instance, I came from a system that required very little online medical control. There was a rigorous educational program, and immense standards to live up to. If we couldn't explain, in full physiological detail, why we did or didn't do something, we were gifted with unemployment. We carried three times the drugs I currently have, and had many more procedures at our disposal. There was no such thing as a "cook-book" medic there, and most of the trucks were double paramedic.

Now I work for a service where I can't even push morphine on a STEMI without calling medical control. I have permission to give one dose of albuterol/atrovent and I am required to call for additional doses. I have been guilty of playing cowboy on a handful of calls here. I am guilty of refusing to follow the standard protocol for chest pain when I refused to administer 400 mcg worth of NTG to a patient with an inferior STEMI even though he had a decent BP the first two times I took it. (Notice I said first two, he bottomed out without my help and coded shortly after in the ER). I was called on the carpet for it by our QA person, and subsequently exonerated by the ER doc that received my patient. It was a judgment call, based on knowledge and experience, that I knew I could back up. I documented the treatment of the patient exactly how it took place. I am not in the business of harming patients, period. I would never attempt to conceal anything, whether I did it on purpose or made a mistake.

Everyone has made at least one mistake and everyone has the responsibility to own up to their mistakes. If you don't, you're a coward.

[CBEMT]

Now I work for a service where I can't even push morphine on a STEMI without calling medical control.

I can't push morphine on anything without calling. Or versed in a seizure without calling.

[iMac]

50/50 those are some scary odds folks.