LeeAnnMedic

I do not, by any means think that proper patient care should be sustituted with an alternative type of care. What I am bascially concerned with, is that in areas such as mine, there are way too many people needing a Paramedics care and not getting it. A lot of problems here are "political" and not geared toward the actual care of patients. EMT-I is not recognized nor are they trained in my state. I completely understand your point, Ridryder, and I do mostly agree with you. But, if things continue to go the way they are going now (like in my area) these type of problems are going to have to be addressed somehow. But I dont think it will include forking out more $$ for employing more Paramedics which would solve the problem. Some insite:: My county,which has 3 towns in it, has a population of about 4,000 people(on record). 85% of the area is "backwoods" and some calls involve actually accessing your patient on foot, on an ATV or crossing a creek b/c the ambulance cannot reach their location and we have very few First responders.It is way too common for people in need of emergency care/transport that have to wait b/c the only ambulance we have is on another call. Thats right, we have only ONE ambulance. The company that runs our county is well established in other counties in Ms and in Al, but we are the only one that has only 1 ambulance. Why? more trucks would mean paying more paramedics. So, I hope you now can understand my concerns and why I wont even work here myself.

I am curious about the training that Basics receive in other areas. Here in Mississippi, Basic are limited on the care or "procedures" that they can perform (legally that is). I think if companies are going to continue to team 2 Basics per rig in stead of Para/Basic teams, the scope of practice for EMT-B should atleast include Intibation and IV(saline), Re: Rural EMS. All of you know, time is precious, and ALS is not always close enough to pick up the slack, alot of times they are not available at all. Some body please tell me that its not like this everywhere.