Are you really part of EMS???

[Just Plain Ruff]

I was eating lunch today when a couple of people from a local transfer service came in.

I went to strike up a conversation with them all in the guise of getting somehow a florida state patch. I told them such.

I then asked what they did all day when working and they said they do transfers. I asked you mean emergency transfers and they said no, only non-emergency transfers.

I then asked when the last time they ran a emergency call and they said that they have not once in their 3 years working at this particular service ran hot or had a patient type other than a hospital to nursing home or hospital to home. They said they even go pick the patient up for their doctors appointment and then wait and then take them home.

The question I have is this.....

If your job description is transfer crew, you run zero nada zip in terms of calls that are considered emergency then can you consider yourself part of EMERGENCY medical Services?

Just something that went thru my head as I was walking back from lunch. Not trying to start a pissing match or war here, I'm just curious.

[Ridryder 911]

I don't think they are really considered "emergency" services. In reality they are transfer technicians. Now, if they transferred critical care or emergency patients, yes.

The same as rescue, fire, police services that do not perform patient care. They are emergency services, not MEDICAL.

Just because one has taken the course, and the test, but have never applied it makes one anything. Curious, on how they maintain their certification?

R/r 911

[Just Plain Ruff]

well we didn't get into that. I assume that as emt's they only need to have a small number of CEU hours and keep their cpr current but I'm not sure.

[JPINFV]

Here's a question then. Are companies that run SNF "emergency" [nursing home to ER] calls, but lack any 911 contracts [either primary or backup contracts that are actually utilized], still considered a part of the EMS system?

[Scaramedic]

They technically could be called "Non Emergency, Not Really Medical Unless You call Taking Grandmas O2 Canister Along Medical, Nursing Home To Doctor For Checkup on Hemorrhoids and then Back to Nursing Home and then go Lunch Services."

AKA...

NEMNRMUYCTGO2CAMNHTDFCHATBNHLS. Certified by the National Registry as

NRNEMNRMUYCTGO2CAMNHTDFCHATBNHLS-Basic.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Here's a question then. Are companies that run SNF "emergency" [nursing home to ER] calls, but lack any 911 contracts [either primary or backup contracts that are actually utilized], still considered a part of the EMS system?

well if they go to the nursing home, pick up a sick person and perform skills on that person and then go to the ER then yes I think they could be considered EMS.

I'm talking about the emt's on transfer cars that the closest thing to patient assessment they get to is doing a quick look at a patient and assessing whether they need a wheelchair van or a stretcher. And then put them in their ambulance and drive them to their bed in their nursing home or house.

[AnthonyM83]

As far as I know, transfer services aren't really considered part of the EMS. They might sometimes be included only because they are emergency medical technicians and thus have the basic training for EMS, but not actually practicing it.

[Richard B the EMT]

Perhaps it is just my viewpoint, but if a patient goes "south" during one of those "non-emergency" transports, is not the patient now an emergency case? The training in my area has no distinction between what here has been described as "Emergency Medical Technicians" and "Medical Transfer Technicians."

Now, on a different look at the issue, what happens when there are no Medical Transfer ambulance services? Right, a front line "Emergency" responder ambulance becomes unavailable for an "Emergency" run, because someone has to take Grandma home from the dentist.

There is, also, what I know as "Ambulette" services. These are mostly vans with ways of securing down an occupied wheelchair, or several wheelchairs, for totally non-emergent transfers and transports. Their clientèle needs the assisted transport, but are stable enough not to need anything other than, perhaps, a boost into the vehicle.

2 companies I used to work for had "combination" vans. Carried everything to meet the state EMS minimum supply and equipment lists, plus a full wheelchair, with the aforementioned ways of securing the occupied chairs down, and the occupants of the chairs to the chairs.

As we sometimes took a stretcher patient with 3 wheelchair patients at a time for an inter facility transfer (THIRTY YEARS AGO), I am so glad, as far as I know, that nobody still does that craziness.

[AnthonyM83]

If a patient goes south, then you have an emergency technician there to recognize it, help, and transport in that case, but their day to day job is not EMS, they simply have the training for EMS situations.

[spenac]

No they are not EMS. These kind of rides do not need ambulances nor do they need medical people for the transport. If they need it then we need an ambulance stationed at every house as somebody just might get sick and those trained would recognize it.