AnthonyM83

That's using statistics in a misleading manner. During rush hour on the gridlocked freeways, the traffic speed might be 5-10 MPH. So, by having L/S, you could ride the shoulder and cut your travel time by 1/3 or 1/4 or even more. That's pretty good! You do NOT have to be going 130 on the freeway to cut your time in half.

Not necessarily. See the previous post about Fla where they have L/S...if this is how things were done during residency, then they weren't getting themselves into. I'd hate to be be on call with not much to do, especially if I had kids and a family.

Agreed. I'm EMTB, too, but really this is technician stuff...knowledge and theory isn't very in-depth. While an EMTB should be able to look at the big picture of stuff, it's for the most part just following algorythms. If this presents, then do this. If that presents, then do this other thing.

Is it gutter brain bad of me that I spent about 15 seconds re-reading trying to figure out the sexual innuendo there before realizing there was none. Chest actually means chest, not boobs, and it's his, not hers. Ah, I have my moments.

Remember not to compare apples and oranges. We have to consider the different factors that come with physicians driving their personal vehicles. How far away do they live without traffic? (20 minutes?) How far with traffic? (60 minutes?) I'm sure you guys can think of even more factors. I know here it can take me 5 to 15 minutes to go one freeway exit in certain stretches of the freeway during your regular rush hour (without any bad accidents). L/S would help significantly in these cases. If there are specific concerns, you can always add in policies like no running red lights or stop signs...just use it to request vehicles to yield or to drive on the freeway shoulder...simpler stuff like that. Or whatever would fit your area best. Asysin, I think it's a great idea to look into.

I heard a story of a ride-along who said "have a nice day" to an old lady as they left the scene of a call.... her husband had just passed away on that call.

Hmm...so if I were being transported after being shot and as my last words, I did my best to get out a suspect description, they'd have to go get a subpoena? It's not really medically related who the guy was...

From what I've heard it's been said that average response times aren't that much faster with L/S. AVERAGE is the keyword. I think people might be imagining doing 90 in a 65... instead think rush hour and being able to do 45 in the left shoulder lane of the freeway while everyone else goes at 0-15MPH. In rural areas with low traffic, L/S might not do much because on a road without traffic your L/S speed and your regular speed might not be much different...you might mainly save time skipping a red light rotation or two and maybe going a little faster than other traffic. Also, POV driving would be different. Intersections would need to cleared a bit more carefully, because your car doesn't stand out as much and maybe you don't have a siren, just the light...stuff like that.

You're making an assumption here. Yeah, a doc could certainly take things a little far getting to the hospital with L/S especially at first, but what percentage of them? Is it more or less than other EMS personnel? What's their accident rate? I backup what Dustdevil said.

What made you like one over the other? Voice explanations? Design of diagrams? Color coding?

Is that because of the way they do their ressuscitations or because people in the hospital are more likely to have worse problems or something along those lines.

How long would Paramedic school be? Edit: ???

I think it depends on a lot of stuff that we don't have specific information on here. What's the average regular response time versus L/S response FOR THAT AREA? Around here, you could save a WHOLE lot more than 43 seconds by using L/S during rush hour. It's also depend on the specific policy on which traffic regulations can be broken when going L/S. What's the crash rate for physician POV L/S responses versus other EMS POV L/S responses. Overall, it seems like a potential logical life-saving policy to me, though.

I'm seeing them more and more at at places like airports and ballparks. If you open the door, an attendent is dispatched to the AED box. I also passed by a San Francisco police station this weekend that had a sign out front that said "AED HERE"

Good article. Hope more people start being prescribed those medications. I did a search on the increased mortality rate fo women on digoxin thing. This artice has some background info and speculation on it (it's just basic About.com info article): http://heartdisease.about.com/library/weekly/aa110402a.htm

Ok...the words Titanic or Hindenberg keeps popping into my head here...

I agree with your logic, but would your also 3-day suspend every person who was assigned that equipment in the last four days b/c they all should have seen the problem during their equipment check, right...

Haven't been employed in the field, so won't comment on that part, but if the Friday shift medic complains to you again, I'd ask him: wouldn't it have been really stupid of me not to mention what that FF said since I'm facing possible suspension. It's not like you're specifically blaming him, either...apparently several people didn't notice the mistake also, and he wasn't necessarily the first who didn't notice or the one who made the mistake. You're just passing on info to defend yourself. BTW, did they discipline your partner since she's the one who checked the machine even before you?...so technically she should have reported it even earlier than you, right? (Using management's logic that is)

I've sent several emails to both their N. Calif and S. Calif. recruiting email addresses (listed on main website) with no replies, as well as to their general email with no replies. I prefer email over calling for basic info so that I can keep track of what each office tells me (as I'm considering a few different locations). I take the attention they give their possible recruits as an indication of how they might treat actual employees. So, not looking good on that front. I did have a really positive experience with a paramedic supervisor who helped out during one of our trainings in EMT school (moving CPR, loading and going, etc). Also overheard some really horrible stories at the firehouse from the recruiters that they heard from various recruits. Example: One employee decided to apply to a firestation, so they fired him, then rehired him the next day, so that he now has a termination to explain in each future job application. Or if you leave to work for fire, you're told they'll never be re-hired. But I'm sure management varies some with location.

Just for future classes you take: Some colleges have workshops or actual classes on learning study skills. Sometimes if you don't study the correct way (for you), you might study 2 or 3 times as much as everyone else and still get a worse grade. I've seen others in my class do this.

Gotcha....I was thinking, "huh, look to see nose hairs waving back and forth with breath"?

Huh? That post hard to read and figure out exactly what you're saying, but I think the original poster did want opinions and he got a lot of them of varying degrees, from absolutely telling to people who thought it wasn't our business to tell at all to people who would only tip police off or report only for certain crimes.

Funny. I don't get the mirror reference, though...

Yeah, especially the 20 yro drinkers... Exceptions to all rules, but in general let's keep people friendly towrad us

Apparently most of my high school was psychopathic as well, then, because this question was going around school back then. I think most people will get this right...i'd like to hear the answers of anyone who got it wrong.