An ambulance is NOT a bus...

[ccmedoc]

Nope, not gonna cut it. I demand that we immediately solve this issue with a name that conveys our medical profession.

Ok demand is to strong but why not use a small amount of extra effort and call it a Mobile Medical Center.

Just EMS vehicle...it is what it is....

[bigj1130]

I think MICU is appropriate, no offense to any M.D. or Nurse or Fallout. I understand your points and they are valid but when working an acute case we are providing initial intensive care. while all of our cases are not acute ok 95% percent of our cases are not acute but for that 5% when we do intubate, defibrillate, cannulate, medicate, etc. that is at least to me intensive care. I do think it is a better choice than ambulance or meat wagon or maggot wagon or bus or any other derogatory word that describes our Profession and our vehicle for that profession.

Maybe we go with MATV Medical Aid and Transport Vehicle. But that is a mouthful. Maybe just Medic X and Aid X for ALS and BLS units.

[Dustdevil]

I think MICU is appropriate...

It's appropriate for us, just like bus and truck are. But it's inappropriate for the general public, just like bus and truck are. It may make us sound all important and everything, but the public will simply never go for it. To long. Too many words. Too big words. Not a chance in hell the public will ever remember it, much less adopt it. Gotta keep it simple.

I still maintain that it is easier -- and better -- to simply take the term "ambulance" (the one that everybody already knows) and legally protect it for use only by EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES, and let the transfer jockeys find a new name for their machines. Again, why should EMS be the ones to have to change and re-educate the public? Let the profit makers do that.

[firedoc5]

I just had a thought. If EMS hash out a few things (like, right), the calls can be screened better. Basics and Intermediates can run on the less serious situations. But an MICU then they know will know it is a serious situation. But to run MICU you must be a P or higher AND take additional advanced classes. I know that is asking a lot, almost impossible. Get it out to the general public and the dispatchers will need to revamp their screening procedures. If a call comes in and there is a B or I unit can be respond and start everything until the MICU get's there. Clear as mud?

[tinman694]

I've never been a fan of the phrase MICU for the standard paramedic-staffed ambulance.

...

Any other ideas our there?

I prefer "Gut Scow" or "Garbage Wagon"

Nothing would inspire more prefessionalism than those two terms!!!

On the Air, the cops call for a 10-52, or the Fire chief calls for a Rescue, Which dispatches an ecnalubmA.

[Richard B the EMT]

That ends up becoming the multi-string of what to call the vehicle, which, as discussed in those many threads, range from Ambulance, Rescue, Floodlight Unit (!), to too many names to take up our limited bandwidth, here.

I am sometimes guilty of that. Ever notice when referring to an ambulance on a Cadillac chassis, I somehow end up calling the beautiful beast a "Caddy-Lance"?

[spenac]

I give up. Just call it what it really is treated as by most and that is a TAXI. If I got my hack permit would probably get better pay anyway. There is no hope for a group that can not agree on something as simple as what to call their equipment. Its always we've always done it this way so I will not change. So call it what you want you are nothing more than a taxi driver. I apologize if I have offended those real professional taxi drivers by giving such a title to all us whackers.

[SSG G-man]

Well, I do not think we are the only folks who have trouble with naming their equipment. Is it a cop car, police car, squad car, cruiser, interceptor, black and white? I think we are making more out of this than need be!

I do think that a name that implies what goes on inside might be better for the image.

But what do I know! I spent a part of my military career being transported by LPC's (leather personnel carriers!!)

SARGE

Sarge

[Dustdevil]

I just had a thought. If EMS hash out a few things (like, right), the calls can be screened better. Basics and Intermediates can run on the less serious situations. But an MICU then they know will know it is a serious situation. But to run MICU you must be a P or higher AND take additional advanced classes. I know that is asking a lot, almost impossible. Get it out to the general public and the dispatchers will need to revamp their screening procedures. If a call comes in and there is a B or I unit can be respond and start everything until the MICU get's there. Clear as mud?

Perfectly clear, but impractical. As I already stated, it simply won't work. That's what Texas already does. Ambulances here are licensed at several levels, with the top being MICU. Yet, among all those services licensed at the MICU level, damn few of them bother to put "MICU' on the sides of their ambulances. Why? Because again, nobody knows or cares WTF that means. Again, THEY DON'T CARE! You can't go complicating things for the public you serve just because you don't like your name. Ever been given a nickname you didn't like? What happened? If you fought it, it just got worse. If you just went with it, it either went away, or else you got comfortable with it. There is no fighting this "ambulance" name, and there is no changing the public.

The Dallas Fire Department has been labelling their ambulances with "MICU" since they dumped the "ambulance" term in 1978. How many citizens of Dallas do you think call them MICUs today, thirty years later? I'll bet you couldn't fill my swimming pool with those people. I have NEVER heard a civilian call the dispatch centre requesting an MICU. Get real. Just go with it. We're here to serve the citizens, not vice versa.

[tinman694]

That ends up becoming the multi-string of what to call the vehicle, which, as discussed in those many threads, range from Ambulance, Rescue, Floodlight Unit (!), to too many names to take up our limited bandwidth, here.

I am sometimes guilty of that. Ever notice when referring to an ambulance on a Cadillac chassis, I somehow end up calling the beautiful beast a "Caddy-Lance"?

God I miss the Que on the Fender! Guess that is why I also ride the big red truck sometimes....memories.....

We are still the Rodney Dangerfield profession....and for the foreseeable future it will remain....

Caller:

There's a guy out here bleedin' heavy.....we need a MICU here now!

911 dispatcher:

Ok Sir, Calm Down...did you say you want a bus or a Taxi? I will be sending the rescue ranger first response wacker corps vehicle immediately. Do you know if the patient has the appropriate insurance?

Caller: huh?

Should we continue?