Medic003

Yes on these units we can use the additional equipment and meds that we have. I personally have not done so since I am in more of a city type area with transport times averaging less than 10-15 minutes to a ER. Now I have talked to some of the medics that work some of the CCT units that have used the vent on 911 calls where the transport time was longer and used it on resp arrest patients. The IV pump has been used by a medic that works the same unit as me for a STEMI patient that he had a longer than normal transport time for and instead of continuing with the classic MONA combo for this pt and spraying nitrates every 3 minutes he did go ahead and start the Nitro drip on the patient which worked out so great. Our medical director and medical contacts at the hospitals have been great since the inception of these units and they love them. It has taken patient care up a notch esp. with how more and more we are seeing patients that require the equipment that we have.

Well there paraloco I am not sure where you heard that 1 drip meds do not get paid but I can assure you that is completly wrong. The CCT critieria for any drip is that if it must be on a IVAC pump and is anything other than normal saline, ringer, d5w all by itself that a CCT unit must be used for this patient. It does not matter whether there are antibotics, potassium, or anything that is added to the isotonic solution that the CCT unit must be used. These are some really easy CCT calls and getting the extra cash for these types of trips are great. I am a CCT medic for AASI and can assure you that it does not matter whether it is 1 drip or 5 drips you get paid. Yes we do run just like a regular unit but it is your own choice whether or not to be on a CCT unit.

Well I can chime in on the Critical Care Transport units for Acadian. The medics are trained for another 3 weeks in our own class and the class has been modified from the Baltimore CCEMT-P program. The medics get paid extra (lump sum) for every CCT (Critical Care Transport) run that they make. These are mostly all hospital to hospital trips. The units are equipped with extra gear for these calls. Every CCT unit has a Eagle Impact Ventilator, a 3 channel IV pump, Chest Tube's, and various other narcotics (ROC, Succs, Nipride, as well as some others that I can't remember at this time.) We now have placed these units in every area that we run in and most areas have as least 2 units for this purpose. They still do run regular emergency calls and routine transfers but are a great help when it comes to CCT transports. We used to have a supervisor bring vents and pumps to the hospital everytime that a Vent pt needed to be transported so this has made it more reliable and it makes sure that the patients benefits by having the most highly trained medics running these calls. Oh and we have just moved into the San Antonio, TX area last week anyone interested please go the website to see any available openings. Hope everyone had a great New Year's.

We also use the Road Safety International system and I do like it. Been using it for around 3 years it is alot better than our older system that we used to have. And yes that noise is loud.