CBEMT

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/05/sources_hundred.html http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/05/mass_health_off.html

And if I was quoting YOU, that would matter. I suggest you actually read what I wrote, I have made it easy & put it in here for you to reread. Smartass.

We tried that already, mate. As I recall from history class, it didn't work out too well. About as well as the current "war on drugs," in fact. It did work better than DC and Chicago's ban on handguns though....

This pretty much reinforced Dust's usual point regarding vests: you should be wearing it all the time, because only wearing it when the call "sounds like you need it" could cost you your life.

Pesticide being sprayed next to an elementary school. Wind gust takes it into two classrooms. 30-40 exposed, 15-20 with nausea and upset-stomach type symptoms, along with positive CO readings via SPCO (most below 10). The weird part was, it was an organophosphate, but they all had CO symptoms.

They sued everybody. The band, obviously. The owners, but they declared bankruptcy before the ink was dry (which was a forgone conclusion given their $1 million fine for not having worker's comp insurance). The foam manufacturer for their dangerous product, the Budweiser distributor running a promotion and enticing more people to come and therefore overcrowd the venue, the local rock station that promoted it and enticed more people to come and therefore overcrowd the venue, the city for negligent fire inspection, the state for not supervising the local guy... And on and on. And of course they all settled rather than go to trial. If they had, the analysts were talking about a billion-dollar judgment.

I'm surprised that Texas allows ECAs to transport patients. My understanding is they're essentially First Responder level. I can't support that. I will say, however, that I'm FAR more comfortable in the back of the truck with a retired CDL driver with 30+ years in the seat but no EMT license, like we have, driving me to the hospital versus to an 18 year old EMT with less than 2 years experience driving mommy's SUV back and forth to school. Neither one of them can do very much to help me once the wheels start turning anyway, so what's the difference? The difference is, I'm much more likely to not get dead with the experienced driver. As Dust always tells us, it's when the vehicle is in motion that we're getting killed- and killing patients.

Feh, that's nothing. I read a few months back that the Station Fire lawsuits are on the verge of being settled. Families and survivors are getting somewhere in the neighborhood of $500,000 for each victim. The lawyers are getting something like $3 million each.

Love to know what his blood chemistry looks like.

My concern would be interoperability- these trucks couldn't use somebody else's stretcher if that became necessary for whatever reason. My service used to have older model Ferno stretchers, with a track system instead of "horns." It was actually a really solid locking system, but the chief replaced it with Strykers (not that I complained about that) with horns for that reason- interoperability.

Friend of mine works for/with IATSE as a set medic. Paid her bills and then some for quite a while, when there's work to be had. When there's a film in town, she takes herself off the schedule at her company entirely. $30+ an hour to watch Katherine Heigl get dunked underwater over and over again.... yeah I think I could handle that. The producers would probably love that. Even on overtime BEMS wouldn't be getting what the IATSE guys are making straight. Btw, here's the original story: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1248792 Predictably, the comment thread is... interesting.

The longer this goes, the more pissed I get at the Rosenbaums for not re-filing their lawsuit. Pretty clear that the District has reneged on their end of the deal.

Medic I used to work with did a few years at Austin/Travis County EMS. Their procedure for an emergency button activation was that BOTH partners had to reply with the approved response. Otherwise, lots of blue suits would be heading their way fast, quick, and in a hurry. Complacency kills. These guys were lucky.

Sounds hella like a dystonic reaction....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/north_east/8643569.stm

Are the results not satisfactory because the device itself doesn't work ad advertised, or is there user error involved- ie bagging whenever you feel like it instead of watching for the light. I think you'd need to work on that before you throw the baby out with the bath water.

You went wrong right there, so the rest of the post is pretty much moot. There are more privates than municipals services, yes. But there are also far more private transports (dialysis, discharges, etc etc) than 911 transports. Since the municipalities aren't going to do that, it's by necessity. Not because we like it that way. On the 911 side, there are far more municipalities running the EMS than privates. And even where the privates do run the calls, 95% of the time it's by contract that covers everyone within the city/county limits. Now if this county service asked for what amounts to mutual aid from this private and they didn't get it, well, that's obviously not good, but its true that the private has no legal obligation to respond. I would think the goal at that point would be to get SOMEBODY ELSE, but I guess county dispatch didn't have a plan for that. Doom on them. If it it was the private I used to work for, they can and will send a truck from 20+ minutes away if they have to- but they WILL send a truck to a municipality or facility requesting. I've been pulled from responding to a transfer to go to an emergency more times than I can count. Emergencies ALWAYS took priority. Maybe that makes us the exception, but it happens all the time.

When working asystole or PEA, consider the H's, the T's, and Chuck Norris. If the cause of the arrest is determined to be Chuck Norris, immediate termination of efforts is indicated.

I've been involved in a drill simulating the activation of an ACF during a pandemic flu crisis, so I got to see how the whole thing runs. Here, ACFs will receive patients, including walk-ins, by bus from secondary collection points, and from EMS, during the crisis (my 911 department would transport patients meeting criteria to a nearby high school, by way of example). They will triage, treat, and if necessary, hold/admit for as long as necessary. Patients determined to be critical, become critical, or requiring more advanced diagnostics will be transferred to an actual hospital (each ACF will send their patients to a different pre-determined hospital) for further assessment and treatment. Private ambulances will have a staging area of units on-site for this purpose, thereby eliminating delays. The ACFs are staffed, near as I can tell, by personnel assigned by pre-plan from the hospital that the ACF transfers their patients to- that way everyone is already on the same page in terms of treatment, equipment, supplies, etc. This would most likely be personnel called back as opposed to stripped from the hospital itself.

If Vent wasn't on a call, whatever the crew did was stupid, dangerous, and contraindicated. If Vent wasn't in the hospital, it's mere luck that the patient somehow managed to survive to discharge. One of these days, you guys will come to the realization that Vent is always right, about everything, and always has been. Your lives will be so much less frustrating once you stop trying to have an opinion in any thread she is involved with, because you can't. It's not allowed. And she'll spend 6 pages telling you so.

That's great and all, but I just don't see the point in adding a 2-line post to a 4 year old topic, especially when said post agrees with the majority of the thread. It's like a brand new Supreme Court Justice writing a one-page concurring opinion to a case that the Court decided years ago.

Speculation on our part. Either way, a blatant attempt to fire someone, anyone, and have the public think that the city is getting rid of the person "responsible" for the man's death. In Josie's case, they (may have) managed to find someone involved who actually violated a (singular, unrelated to patient care in any way) policy.

Umm, thanks. Not sure why we needed to dig up a 4 year old thread.......

I like this one myself.