RockDoc

This ought to be one judge that is removed from the bench as soon as possible

There you go man, keep as cool as you can, It riles them to believe that you perceive the web they weave, Keep on thinking free.

No, I had to work that day. However, I can't count the number of Willie Nelson July 4th, Lollapaloozas, Metallica, Farm Aid and others like that I have done.

Like Race Medic, sometimes names stick because of what you do. Many years ago, before some of you were born, we did rock concerts in fields and pastures, not venues like we have today. I was always called the RockDoc by all the production and roadies at the show. The name still sticks on me, and when staff is asking for "Doc" at the show, they are looking for me.

That and we were able to deliver patients to ER with an IV and not so many puncture marks. The old Medi-cuts had a square ended catheter tip, not the beveled tips on modern IV catheters...

I loved the Jelco and Angio-cath needles. They were a lot better than the old Medi-cuts we were issued, the ones with the 10cc syringe attached. We would trade out at our hospitals, 1 box of Medi-cuts for 3 or 4 Jelcos.

I don't mind being bat boy for the right team.

EMS is forever changing. In 1971, cardiac code was "Draw 2, Push 2, Push 1, CPR and run like hell" Draw 2 red tops, push 2 bicarbs (even on witnessed arrests), push 1 Epi, CPR and transport. Later I participated in (1) mega dose Epi studies, (2) IV/no IV on trauma situations,and (3) mast trousers/no trousers on trauma, among other studies. That is why it is called "the practice of medicine" because standards are ever changing.

I am all for gay marriage. Every time two guys hook up, that means that there are two more women in the world whose standards may have to drop enough to consider giving me a whirl.

BS calls-----among many over the years, I remember best------------ One of those nights on 24 hour shift with about 18 runs under our belt. We were dead tired, really beat. Got back to the station bout 3 AM and just as soon as my butt hit the recliner, --tones go off and here we go again. Went to an apartment complex, saw a guy waving to us. Went up to him and asked what was the problem. He was really swishing, playing the gay act to to the max., said "its my friend" We went up to the apartment, opened the door and went in, thru the living room/kitchen and opened the bedroom door. The room was painted black, walls and ceiling and had flourescent painted symbols painted on the walls. In the corner there was a fish tank with one of those sucker bottom feeding fish swimming around making sucker motions with his mouth, flourescent bulb in tank. I looked over at the bed, there were head marks on both pillows so there was no doubt what was going on. On the wall above the bed were 4 paintings. The artist was very good, though the dimensions of some aspects of the painting were probably over-exaggerated. The first painting was of the guy in the bed with his partner, his heels above his head and his partner doing him in the missionary position. The second painting was the guy in the bed in a doggy position being breech-loaded by his partner. I never did figure out exactly what to call the positions in the third painting, but it was of the same nature. Be that as it may, it wasn't my business what they were doing, we were here to save a life...lololololo I asked the guy on the bed "Whats the problem" He looked up at me ,gave a deep sigh, brought his hand up over his eyes and in the most Nellie voice I have ever heard said, "I just can't get to sleep" At that point, being dead tired and sleep deprived myself, I snapped at him "Well, usually a piece of ass puts me right out" and I turned around and headed for the door before I realized that my last statement definitely meant different things to each of us. I just kept walking, went back to the unit, went into service and headed back to the station. No compassion at all from me on this one. MORE TO THE STORY---- I just kept getting madder and madder that we would be called out to such a BS call. We had started the day out with an arrest and the day had just got worse, and now at 3 AM in the morning I was called to sing lullabyes or show tunes or whatever it would take to get this guy to sleep, and since I had the time in to retire, I decided that the next morning I was going to retire. I went to the office the next morning and filled out all the paperwork for retirement, and at the end I had to sign and date it. That is when I realized it was Friday the 13th. I couldn't retire on a Friday the 13th, so I decided to put off retirement till Monday morning. I would up staying another 5 years until I retired.

Look in their eyes. That is where true thanks comes from (or F-bombs, said or unsaid). With old people especially, they will reach out to your hand with theirs. Not much needs to be said to be understood.

Well said CrapMagnet. There are some private companies that provide excellent EMERGENCY and non_Emergency. However, I do believe that all privates receive subsidies from the cities,counties, municipalities that they serve. I do not know of any privates that can exist strictly on the collections that the get from calls, cashor insurance. Remember, the original subject of this thread concerned the defraudment of Medi-Care by companies, private or public. Do not tar all providers with the same brush.

The same thing happened in Montgomery County, Texas. For 3 years running, I think 1984 thru 1987,Montgomery County EMS was listed as National Paramedic System of the year. Resident taxes paid for the EMS as well as the county hospital, Level 1. Along came Rural Metro and convinced the county fathers to sell the EMS to them, Columbia bought the hospital. RM revamped the EMS system to put it on a for-profit basis and literally destroyed the entire system, along with its quality care. 911 units were pulled off the streets to work football games, conventions, drag races, motocrosses, IFT's ,anything that would make a dollar. Response times went to hell in a handbasket, with many times mutual aid being called from surrounding communities when ambulances were not available for emergency calls because of prior commitments. Pay rates were cut for medics, quality medics left to work for other systems and within 2 years our EMS system was shot to hell. RM notified the authorities that they were leaving Monkey Çounty in 30 days, and they did, taking ambulances and equipment with them. It took almost 5 years to rebuild our EMS system. I will say that today it is back to being one of the finest. One rule has always been true about TRUE 911 EMS services. It is not a profit making venture. Never has been, never will be.

That is putting it nicely.

Let me just say what I mean without beating around the bush, this has nothing to do with liberal versus conservative, Democrat versus Republican. Many--if not most companies in Houston are owned by people that do not have American sounding last names, but names that are distinctly African (Nigerian) or Arabic sounding. One family group may register as many as 5 or more names, but only have one ambulance for all the companies. Company A goes in service with the one ambulance and operates for several years until Medi-Care does an audit on them and finally stops paying their claims. Company A goes out of business on a Friday evening, but on Monday morning Company B goes in service, with the same ambulance, same medics, and same base of illegal patients to transport. Company B has a clean record, gets a new (and higher profile) and operates for several more years until they are also shut down by Medi-Care stopping paying their claims, then Company C begins service, with the same ambulance, medics and patient base. The registered owners of each company leave the country when their company is defunded, but the monies collected from Medi'Care have already been sent overseas. This has been going on for over 15 years that I am personally aware of. Its a never ending cycle. Its not hard to defraud Medi-Care and make lots of money, but sooner or later you will get caught. I can write a report on anyone and make it Medi-Care payable, just as long as I don't let the truth get in the way of what I am writing. Most medics do not write falsified reports, but reports can be changed when they are turned in to the company office, and when the claim is submitted to Medi-Care it will not contain any information that would make it non-payable. Not to say that all ambulance services in Houston seek to defraud Medi-Care. I know of several companies who are trying to succeed by being knowingly legal, but it is tough competing against companies that pay out bribes and kickbacks for patients. My brother (who recently passed away) was in a vegetative state, comatose and on dialysis. Before he became that way, he drove himself to dialysis and lived a normal life. I know of one company (now out of business) that offered him $1,500.00 if he would let them come to his house and transport him to dialysis. He refused. I wish the FBI all the luck in the world in cleaning up the mess in Houston and anywhere else that fraud is this rampant.

Never say never---During Katrina I was Scene Commander at Ellington Air Force Base receiving C-130's flying patients out of New Orleans. For over a week, day and night, every 2-4 hours these C-130's would land at Ellington with between 20-30 really serious patients aboard, mostly dialysis patients who hadn't received dialysis in over a week or more, some really sick folks. I had as many as 30 ambulances working at Ellington transferring these patients to the closest hospital that could help them, sometimes as far as 125 miles away. Houston Fire Department EMS was completely occupied trying to take care of several thousand patients housed in the Astrodome. I had to find hospitals/dialysis units (sometimes at 4 AM) that would take these patients in and treat them. We saved our Level 1 hospitals for the absolute critical, "I'm fixing to die" patients and farmed the other patients out wherever we could. Sometimes as many as 3-5 patients were loaded in one ambulance (not critical ones) and transported . If there was room to strap a patient in sitting up or laying down, it was used. The object was to clear the last plane load of patients before the next plane load came in. During that week we handled over 1,000 patients and as miracles can happen, not one of them died. We used the morgue setup to catch catnaps between planes. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, the rules be damned.

It looks like the axe is finally gonna fall in Houston on all the fraud and corruption in the private EMS industry. The only way one could understand it is to be from the Houston area. It is massive fraud and only the tip of the iceberg has been uncovered so far... For some interesting reading---Google----"Houston chronicle ambulance investigation" This will blow your mind..

Always---and last night would have been a good one...Buzzfest--I am so sore this morning I can hardly move.. Last all day show of the year, after Zac Brown and Rascal Flatts we will be off several months and wife and I plan on doing some traveling and visiting with grandkids. If you get an event, let me know, I may be able to show up there.

Thanks for the welcome, ladies and germs. Toni---yup--its me, just like a case of herpes II, I am back again. I sold my interest in my company last year and started another one this year. I am out of the transfer business, only do Special Events now. Just the fun stuff. My son and Daughter in law, with my beautiful baby grandaughter just moved to North Austin, my wife and I spend a lot of time up that way nowadays, maybe we can visit sometime...My guess is you are still involved in Special Events, I may want to volunteer to work with you if I can fit it in my schedule sometimes. DFIB---I live and work in Monkey County, I may know your son. Is he MCHD or private ambulance service? If you are into hog hunting, I could really make your day. My property stays rooted up all the time and I have a standing offer to anyone who wants to hunt them. Kill them and leave them where they lay, if you want to. Buzzards and worms gotta eat too. DWayne---From the time Texians broke away from Mexico after the Alamo and became Texans, we have been a pain in someone's ass, and that is the way it will always be. Its part of our gene pool. Thanks for the welcome, everyone.............Now to the boards

Greetings everyone. I am a newbie on this forum but a dinosaur in the EMS world. I have been a paramedic for 40 years and have seen the EMS world change several times during that period. I am still involved in EMS, having retired a couple of times, but now I just do the fun stuff. I'm a Texan just north of the Houston area. Looking forward to putting my 2 cents in quiet often, (I have a lot of time off). See you on the boards...........