Respond in Pickup rather than ambulance, Would You?

[spenac]

http://www.emsresponder.com/article/articl...n=1&id=8608

EL Paso, TX Paramedics Use Pickup Instead of Ambulance

Arleene Barrios-KFOX News Reporter Story by kfoxtv.com

Story by kfoxtv.com

EL PASO, Texas --

When you call 911 with a medical emergency, you would expect an ambulance to show up. But on Wednesday, paramedics from Station 22 in west El Paso had no choice but to respond to calls using a pickup truck.

El Paso Fire Department spokesman Lt. Mario Hernandez said the ambulance was in the shop for about 22 hours for mechanical repairs.

"The safety of the public was never compromised. We do have plans for these types of emergencies," said Hernandez. Those plans usually call for one of the nine reserve ambulances to be put in service.

However, Hernandez said none were available because they were being used at other stations, or were in the shop.

Without an ambulance, paramedics can't take someone to the hospital if they need urgent care. Instead, they would have to wait for an ambulance to show up from a different fire station.

"Let's say there was a major fire, and the fire truck and the ambulance from station 22 were at that incident, you would still have an ambulance backing those units up," said Hernandez.

Rick Montes, a paramedic at station 22, said all of their life-saving equipment is portable. They keep all of it packed in separate duffle bags. Some of the equipment includes a medical bag, a heart monitor and an airway bag with a portable oxygen tank.

The only piece of equipment paramedics can't carry is a stretcher.

"You're getting advance life support and care with that pickup truck," said Hernandez.

The fire department should be getting seven new ambulance in a couple of months to replace some of the older ones.

[crotchitymedic1986]

Talk about piss poor planning. I guess they dont have mutual aid agreements in texas, or they werent smart enough to rent a used ambulance from a dealer or hire a private servide to cover the zone. Although there are lots of issues with this, one that stands out is if they charged the patient's insurance for this trip, it would be fraud, since a licensed ambulance was not used. I have worked in busy urban services where occassionally, a supervisor would transport low acuity patients to the hospital in the supervisors vehicle when we were nearly out of ambulances (call volume-- not mechanical), or were out of ambulances. But we didnt bill the patient.

[spenac]

No ambulance sales/rental lots in El Paso. I do not know why they did not call in the privates that operate there. They used to call them if call volume exceeded number of ambulances. I am surprised that they had 9 reserve ambulances for a town of 600,000-700,000 people.

[Happiness]

We live on an Island that is surrounded by beaches. Our ambulance is not 4x4 and is way to heavy to travel on the sand and peat gravel. I have never had to go by Truck to a pt but if need be I could take mine to the patient and ask to have a helicopter fly from about 30 min away if need be. I would have to concider weather and location of the patient. We have alot of tourist that bring their quads and bike to burn around the dunes ect so I guess it could happen. There are times that medics I guess just have to think outside the box not only in medical issues but in the transport of them to.

[spenac]

We have took back board and other supplys and went for patients in the back of the deputys pickups. Package patient ride out to the ambulance with patient in bed of truck. Only way as no helicopter. That or let them lay there and die.

[Arctickat]

Isn't that just the same thing as a "fly car" or "rapid response unit", supervisor car, what ever you want to call it? I see them everywhere, I even used to have one. A medic driving around in a GMC Yukon or a pickup with a topper, some even in cars. They respond to the scene and treat the patient as they wait for the ambulance to arrive and transport.

This doesn't sound any different to me, they were forced to take the ambulance out of service, but they still had medics to respond and treat the patient until transport arrived. It's not like they were transporting in the pickup, even so, out here we are allowed to transport a patient in a properly equipped "Alternate Emergency Vehicle" but only to the nearest access point for an ambulance. I've had to use my Dodge Durango for that purpose a few times to access areas the ambulance could not. Heck, if I had to, I would transport in the pickup truck to an access point, what other option would there be?

[CBEMT]

The plaintiff's decedent, forty-eight year-old Meredith Nelson, suffered a heart attack and called for the defendant EMT, located just two blocks away. The defendant's only available ambulance at that time was not working, so four EMT technicians responded immediately in one of their personal vehicles.

See how it ended.

[Chief1C]

I don't see what the difference is, as long as they did get an ambulance. Suppose all of their ambulances were on calls? Would they have gotten ALS, or would they have had to wait?

It's not always our fault. I notice extreme inconsistencies in the rip and run time sheets. Personally, I've had it take between 30 seconds for a fire; to 7 minutes for a heart attack to be dispatched. In the case above this, they may as well have not responded at all. Was the patient in Cardiac Arrest when 911 was activated?

How long between the time the call was received, and when it was dispatched?

I've had the unfortunate luck to have had to call 9-1-1 several times, from medical emergencies, to the house being on fire. Luckily, when the house was on fire, the whistle was blowing before I even hung the phone up. Unluckily for my next door neighbor, an EMT in NJ in the 70's, there was some sort of delay. After they hung up, yes, they were given the okay to hang up w/ a woman in cardiopulmonary arrest. No CPR instruction. They came knocking at our door when nobody was showing up. My pager went off about five minutes after they knocked on the door, and we did CPR till the ambulance arrived, about three minutes after dispatch. It was too late for the AED to be of any use.

[Arctickat]

See how it ended.

That's just poor documenting, not because of the type of vehicle used. Besides, the Pickup truck was an official El Paso FD vehicle from what I understand. Not someone's POV.

[fiznat]

That court case is pretty interesting. I feel it shows what can happen to well-meaning providers when they go out on a limb and do something unconventional for their patient. True it looks like poor documentation was their real undoing, but I think if you try something like this you are likely presumed guilty until proven innocent if anything goes wrong. ...And there is a lot that can go wrong. Bad situation to be in.

I think I might still do it though. Heh. I hope I'm never put in that situation.