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JaxSage

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  1. You both received one as well. Please let me know that you got them. Also, I ask that you correspond with me privately concerning that matter. Thanks a lot
  2. Zz, I have PM you a copy of my protocol regarding cancelling patients. Please let me know if you got it. Thanks a lot.
  3. Zz, I'll send you a copy of my protocol shortly via PM. If anybody else is interested, let me know.
  4. I didn't mean to come across as cocky or arrogant. If I did, I apologize. It wasn't my intention. That article did make news. That county is the only other county besides mine in NC where EMS is allowed to refuse transport. I probably have as many questions as you concerning that call. Since he was 17, he should have been taken to the hospital regardless unless he was emancipated. Like I said, there are drawbacks to allowing medics to refuse transport and as I said a few times already, people have misused that authority. But remember, we don't know the whole story, and I don't even know the whole story. So, rather than make any sort of judgment, I think it'll be fair to look out for any updates concerning this call so that we could get both sides of the story. Who knows, perhaps the medics were careless and lazy in that case.
  5. Vent, I'm really trying to keep the peace here. I'm sorry if I caused any problems. So, I'm offering to those who truly want to know where I'm coming from to PM me. Was I expecting concerns and constructive criticism? Yes. Was I expecting a name-calling spree? Not really.
  6. Careful, buddy, I have already been stoned for bringing up a similar subject. But I agree with you 100%
  7. I welcome anybody who has any concerns or questions concerning our protocol to private message me.
  8. Actually, since he was a minor, we would have transported him anyway. However, since it wasn't an emergency, we decided to call his mother and asked what she wanted us to do. She wanted us to wait until she got there. We don't just throw children on the back of our ambulance in non-emergent situations without first contacting a parent or guardian. It's a good thing that he didn't. Whew! A child's cry for help? If it meant catching those who jumped him, then that's a police and a school administration concern, both of which were there. They would be better able to meet his need than we in EMS would have. In fact, we did do a medical assessment, believe it or not. What we did had nothing to do with whether or not he was a prisoner. I have transported a prisoner before because he was definitely in medical distress and he was given morphine to help his pain. Regardless of how we feel about prisoners or anybody's status in society, we still do our job. No, I have shown examples that I hadn't explained thoroughly enough. Obviously, this is just not an issue that everybody would agree with. I'm absolutely fine with that. I thought that you guys would have been thrilled with the possibility of not having to transport everybody. But I was wrong. No one feels comfortable with it and it seems that almost everybody who responded seem to justify transporting everybody. There are both pros and cons to it. Believe it or not, we actually do a thorough assessment before denying anybody, but according to many of you, no one could do a thorough enough assessment to deny anybody, even if a patient called because he bit his tongue eating fried chicken. Who knows, maybe that tongue would get infected and fall off...and ultimately the patient would have a huge MI and fall over dead. Then the family would sue us because we didn't take the patient to the hospital for biting his tongue eating KFC...and the family would win millions of dollars...something that we don't have in this agency. So instead, the family would go to the news, then would go to Washington, they would have a petition signed by thousands of people who would seek to shut this place down...and everybody would lose their certifications, retirement, and no other EMS agency would want to hire us, and we'll be blacklisted, and our homes would be taken away, and we'll turn to drinking and drugs, get arrested and sentenced, and we'll be faking seizures just to get out of jail...but that won't happen because you have nuts shoving up inhalants in our noses just to prove that we're faking. I have a lot of respect for EMS to be treated like a cab service. Soon enough, we'll be extending our services to deliver people's groceries, servicing their cars, washing their clothes, mowing their lawns, and taking their dogs for a walk. Our motto should be, "You call, we haul...and everything else in between." And the way the economy is, we might as well extend our services so that we could raise funds to keep us in business, because knowing the respect we get, the government is going to cut off funding for us if push came to shove. So let me set up the EMS lemonade stand. So if this insults anybody, I'm sorry. But EMS is more than babying everybody who calls for the stupidest things. But that's just my opinion. And I'll end it at that. This is my last post on this subject. So, if anybody else has any insults for me, send them to me privately if you don't mind.
  9. Are you the partner that people love to work with...or are you the one that people dread? One of the major drawbacks in the field, in my opinion, is having a bad partner. And when I say bad, I mean a partner who is, well, a jerk. For me, in this field we are family and stick with each other. Not everybody has that mentality. I've been told some horror stories of partners who would make their partners feel just awful. And I had my share of that experience as well. And although we could go on and on about how awful that is and those people should be fired...we have to also look at ourselves and see if we're not doing the same thing to our partners. We may think there is nothing wrong with us...until someone (perhaps a patient) points it out to you. So, if people think you were a bad partner, what do you think would be their main reason for thinking that?
  10. Sounds like you just described the ideal marriage life for the 1950s.
  11. Dang, Dusty, that was mean. What did I ever say to you? I guess we don't do too well with disagreeing with each other here, huh? You know, sometimes it could do you guys some good to just simply listen to what the other guy has to say without making him seem like a do-do.
  12. Let me give you an example, Harris. One time, my parnter and I were called for an animal bite at one of the high schools. This 15-year-old kid said that he was attacked by a dog. The only signs of a dog attack were a small abrasion on his face and on his hands. Nothing else. He strongly claimed that he was attacked by a dog. Even his sister said that he would never make up a lie like that. We doubted he was attacked by a dog, but he stuck with his story...until later when an officer and the principal talked with him. He finally admitted that he was jumped. We know that when dogs attack, they bite and scratch. He had no scratches, no bites, nothing that would suggest a dog attack. Another time, a partner and I went to the jailhouse for a seizure. One of the inmates were lying out on a bed all twisted up and everything and we were almost convinced...but we still had our doubts. So, I put an ammonia inhalant to him and he started shaking then he would stop. I popped another one to him and he started shaking again. I did it a third time...you get the picture. On top of that, we were told that he has faked these seizures before. You be the judge. If you don't have common sense on the job, then there is no way you could function well in this field, no matter how book-smart you are. Yes, we do use our clinical skills to evaluate the patient...but even that has to be supplemented with common sense. It doesn't take much to rule out who's full of crap and who isn't.
  13. Y'all just go ahead and laugh. You guys think that textbooks and clinicals are going to prepare you for the field? I learned more stuff in the field than I had in the classroom. In the field, I'm always reading ECGs, doing patient assessment, giving medication, working codes, dealing with trauma, starting IVs, etc., etc., more than you would ever do in a few hundred hours of clinical and class time. As a former teacher, I'll tell you that hands-on is always the best way to go than to sit through lecture and go through a bunch of silly scenarios that people pull from their nasty behinds.
  14. Obviously, this isn't an issue that everybody is going to agree with. That is completely fine. I'll agree that ultimately it's safer to transport everybody than to deny one person...as far as covering your behind goes. As far as somebody complaining of chest discomfort that presents as heart burn...you'll just have to use your own common sense and street smarts, which is what most of this job consist of. I don't know why the medics didn't transport that guy, because he would have been someone I would have transported. As I said before, people have misused their ability to deny people transport, I won't keep that a secret. However, when it comes to this job, it's about using your common sense. If you're going to second-guess every ridiculous problem and make the most nonsensical complaint into a Dr. House project, then let's not complain anymore whenever people call for the most off-the-wall problems. Because afterall, you just never know. If you don't feel confident in your skills, education, and judgment to deny someone transport, then don't deny anyone. Plain and simple. Not everybody should be trusted with this authority and not everybody who has been trusted with it should use it. Honestly, I think it's ashame that EMS personnel are judged to be too stupid to be trusted with this ability. I think we have some of the greatest medics in my agency who are sharp, knowledgeable, and on-point. If you can't say the same about your agency, then that's a problem. Denying transport is not a norm and many agencies would feel uncomfortable implementing it. Ultimately, it comes down to the best interest of the city/county to better serve them, and in my opinion, better serving the citizens should not involve playing cab driver.
  15. Good for your guys, then. It's not the case with us. Perhaps your county doesn't get ten EMS calls within two minutes like it is in my county. Literally, the busiest times of the day are at lunch time and during the 5:00 rush. It's very common for five or more calls to go out within two minutes. It's very common for almost all of our trucks to be depleted in no time. In five minutes, communications let the supervisor know that Medic such and such is the only unit available in the city. So, it's not so much of how the county manages EMS, it's the freaking call volume and the frequency of those calls. Since we are able to deny transport, that actually helps us to respond to more calls. For example, one time my partner and I had eleven calls within a 12-hour shift. You know that one call could take about an hour if you include responding to the scene, staying on the scene, transporting to the hospital, and waiting at the hospital, and getting your stretcher ready. There is NO WAY we could have ran eleven calls and transported all those folks to the hospital within a 12-hour shift. As you probably guessed, most of those calls did not end up in transportation. Another time, my partner and I ran about four calls within ONE HOUR. No, we didn't transport anybody, but that should give you an idea of how quickly calls come in. Literally, this county would be in BAD SHAPE if we took everybody to the hospital. And this county has less people than yours. RUFF, I know you ain't trying to start something, buddy Like I said, not everybody would feel comfortable with how we run things. Personally, I LOVE it. I hate 911 abuse and I hate people treating us like a taxi ride. I'm actually glad that someone stepped up and said that we're going to use EMS the way it should be used. Not everybody agrees, but you can't always make everybody happy. And by the way, what I've learned is that not everybody who calls us necessarily want a hospital. They just want answers and think we're there to answer them. I agree that not everybody knows any better, so that is why we do educate them and explain to them why they don't need an ambulance and what would be the best thing for them. Sometimes, we would tell a person that making an appointment with their own doctor would be a much better choice than waiting 12 hours at an ER. And since we don't have to take everybody to the hospital, we don't have to lie or try to talk someone out of going to the hospital. We try to steer them in the right direction that is not only good for their medical needs, but also good for their financial needs as an ambulance ride ain't cheap. CRAZYEMT, our protocol isn't perfect. No one's is. If we deny someone transport, we have to be certain that their condition does not merit emergent ALS transportation and carefully document our reason. We don't advocate cancelling everybody and we believe that it is always better to transport than to deny. Yes, you will get in trouble if you make the wrong choice, but it's always about making a thorough assessment, careful documentation, and standing by your decision. On top of that, our protocol allowed us to make that decision, so ultimately the person who would get in trouble would be the medical director and the EMS director. But if no one feels comfortable in denying someone, they would just transport. That's all. By the way, you're right, our paperwork would be the same whether or not we transport a person. It's just the principal of thing
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