spenac

Another black mark. Sadly also goes to prove how little education we have based on his statements.

Wow. With all the busses its a wonder that death toll was not higher. I like how they reported casualtys X critical, X medium injuries, X minor injuries. So when a friend asks you how you are, you say OK I was just had medium injuries. Pictures reminded me of results of a soccer riot.

We used to work 14 on 7 off. It had improved before I quit to 7 on 7 off. But remember this was a service that averaged 2 calls a day. Of course each one had an average of 4 hour round trip time. There were very few 24 hour periods that we did not get at least 8 hours of down time. There were a few times we went out of service for 8 hours so we could sleep. This meant any calls had to wait for mutual aid to come the hour down to take the call. I would never work for a busy service that required long shifts. If you do not have reasonable and realistic expectation of 8 hours down time I feel we should not pull longer than 12 hour shifts. This is again another issue in EMS that one size does not fit all. It would be wrong to mandate services like I work to limit people to 12 hour shifts. My current job I do 96 hour shifts but we average 4 calls a day at the main station and have 3 staffed ambulances, so just over 1 call per ambulance and we have a hospital within 10 minutes of 80-90% of the calls. At the other stations we average less than 1 call a day. I have only had one 24 hour period that I did not have at least 8 hours straight down time in 9 months working there.

Dust as shocking as it may be I have to agree with you. I looked at that site and came away knowing nothing. As a student nothing about it instilled confidence that my money would get me a great education. Definitely don't expect flashy bells and whistles but should be able to get an idea of who they are, what kind of experience the instructors have, what kind of degree, etc.

I have had as many as 6 patients in my ambulance. Once had an OB in active labor, a chest pain with s/s of MI, and a dog bite victim all at 1 time. Every time the OB screamed thought my cardiac patient would code. 30-45 minutes into transport met mutual aid and shuffled patients. As far as transfers back to nursing home only reason I can think of for not doing it is you can not bill both for transport, so you would be costing your service money.

Now Dust don't go on there and put EMT is being phased out per ................... Or that being a volunteer will be illegal by xxxx. That would be just wrong. But if you do, cite your source real or not and you'll be OK. :twisted: Thats what I do not like about that site, anybody can post anything and make it sound like fact.

You sign on for 8,12,24,48,72, etc, you better be able to handle it. I work for smaller services and pull 96 often and used to pull 336. But very seldom do you go more than 24 without sleep.

Ruff to hear that someone would make threats to cause problems because people expressed their educated opinions is just chicken crap. We are talking preferences. If a persons choices in life have led to them getting sick or injured it is their fault, no one elses. The fact that some are uncomfortable with someone with very life changing illnesses treating them should not be a surprise. Even if the risk is less than 1% that is still more risk than if treated by a person w/o disease. To whoever made the threats, they need to get a life and understand this is a forum where we are free to discuss subjects of concern. It is OK to disagree but leave the threats at the door.

Good point

Since you were here before under different name I don't have to play nice. One word spellcheck.

911 EMS is not a money maker, never has been, never will be. Only money in EMS is for transfer taxis. Citys and countys must fund it from other sources. If it is a priority they can find the means. Perhaps let the mayor and county officials do w/o new trucks every year. Perhaps do away with funding town celebrations for every holiday. I could go on and on about government waste of money. Again I say there is no excuse not to have paid EMS. We have one station only gets 17 calls a year yet has a paramedic every shift. The way things were changed was combining forces with all the small towns and the county. Now we are highest paid service in the area. What is funny is this county used to only have 4 ambulances 3 staffed by volunteers. Now we have 5 always staffed, 4 with a paramedic, 5th with at least an EMT-I but often with a paramedic, and all paid. It can be done, just have to force the issue.

MacDust?

At my old service we would spend lots of time on scene with all but critical patients. Sometimes we stayed on scene to see if treatment was working and we would release patient to follow up with their Doctor. It made it easier to do many things while still on scene rather than bouncing 90 miles to the hospital. On critical patients we still did a lot on scene but we got on the road much quicker. Patients benefited from better care. My new job policy is to load and go. Very little done on scene. Of course protocols are limited, so not much you can do anyway. So we load and get the taxi rolling.

Ad a cab over camper and only treat the wealthy big tippers. Leave the small box for the poor scum.

60 calls a year more than equals a paid 24 hours/365 days paramedic ambulance. I work stations that have less calls per year. Any community can afford anything they want. There is no excuse that is valid to say no to paid EMS.

I'm sure it's cash up front, then you file for refund with your insurance. I was thinking same thing about people waiting when they needed care yesterday. gvandellen we used to treat and release at my old service. I miss doing that. I hate working for a you call we haul service.

And we did it on the cheap. Some even did it for free. :roll: Big risks should bring big pay, but thats another thread.

But how many of the nurses will sign on as volunteers, since as so many claim many areas can not afford to pay? :twisted:

In with the old but at a much better profit rate. $250 instead of a chicken. Great idea.

As low as this has sunk does it really matter?

:bootyshake:

Lets play nice kiddos.

I saw several that also post here. Definitly not allowed to voice opinions like we do here.

You know the guy with one EMS sticker don't seem that bad anymore.

You can also get the free www.openoffice.org to open it with. Thanks for another great educational link Ruff.