Nate

I'll admit...I don't always have time to "proof read" my run tickets before I hand a copy to the nurse. I'm usually getting paged by dispatch to get back on the streets and take another call. Now if we are slower and I have the time then I usually write longer, don't use as many abbreviations, and will proof my run tickets.

We are actually looking at stepping our LP12's up to the one with all of the features, but I'm kind of pushing for the Zoll because the LP12 is to damn big IMHO. Ours have the charging base which makes it weigh a ton.

I think that we should set it up so that forum admin has to see your state license before you can post under a certification, otherwise your user name should have student under it in big bold letters.

Texas the cap is $250,000.

People are lazy.

We are good as long as the people who live in Houston know how to follow directions, which doesn't happen.....

A few services use it in Texas.

To bad NRB makers don't throw in the little adapter to make it a venturi mask. :wink:

Another little trick for you. Ask the patient to close his eyes, take the NRB and crank up the oxygen, hold the NRB just above the face of the patient and ask him to take long deep breaths with you. The mask isn't "on" him, but he gets more oxygen and might be willing to accept that mask after he is calm. Also, I was waiting for someone to say something about this, but if the patient is normally using an inhaler and it ran out, then a breathing treatment would be of benefit. :wink:

Don't forget to look at transport time! If you are going to see transports that are going to take a while a venturie (spelling?) mask might be of better use since you can regulate the percentage of oxygen they are getting. Usually you'll see them used in rural areas with lettings around 8-12 LPM at 30 to 45% oxygen (don't hold me to that, we don't carry them). You have to look at more then just Sa02 for proper perfusion (capnography would be nice here). Also check to see what their current settings are, most of the times you get someone with COPD who has just exerted themselves to much and is only on 2-4 LPM with 100' of oxygen tubing. So if you put then on a regular NC at 4 LPM and let them rest you'll notice that their Sa02 level will go up. COPD management is best treated on a case by case basis.

Para-Medic, so what service are you with?

Eh, but the pissing match is so much more entertaining.

Only 2-3, guess they have been cracking down on the "clown car" effect. I remember when I was at Ponderosa we would see 3, 4, once even saw 5 people get out of a Cypress Creek truck. (Then again you know that Creek isn't the same Creek it was a few years ago, which is good and bad.) CLEMC leads the league down here with "most people on a truck," but HFD is catching up to them. Yesterday at Bay Shore ER there were six people from HFD in their ambulance for an SOB call.

No, your were in the right. I would suggest you give your boss a text book so he can read and understand how to check for proper oxygenation and the use of a pluse ox.

The correct phrase would be: "Holy old thread Batman!"

Who do you think has more people on the truck, CCEMS or CLEMC?

I knew it was local, I was wondering if it had made it outside of us. MCHD pretty much sets the standard for EMS in the Houston area. Ofcourse, you'll never hear that out of any of the services down here on the south side of Houston.

How about the three girls in the shower at the start of the show. :wink:

The EMT-I 85 is taught by ever school that puts on an EMT-P class. In order to gain entrance into the EMT-P class you have to complete the EMT-I (you don't have to sit for the NREMT exam or hold the certification, just hold the course completition). The difference between the two if I'm not mistaken is that the EMT-I 99 can use the defib and push cardiac drugs, just about everything except for RSI, narcotics, and they can't do surgical airways. If someone knows better then please correct me, I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the differences between EMT-I 85 and EMT-I 99. It is mostly a lot of the rural fire departments that keep the EMT-I 85 around and are against the removal of the EMT-B and the advancement of EMT-I to the I 99 stuff.

Let me clear this up, I'm refering to "in charge" as being a paramedic that out ranks the other paramedic on the truck based upon education, ability, and skill performance, not time with the service. Many of the services here in Houston run what they call an "in charge" paramedic in which this paramedic has the final call on what happens and is usually out ranked by a supervisor. These positions aren't determined by how long you've been with the service, but by how much education, ability, and skill (usually done with a test).

ER doesn't do us any justice either, why should a medical drama in which all of the doctors spend their time draming about screwing each other.

How many services out there are using the whole "incharge" paramedic thing or some how have different ranks of paramedics?

Now we haven't lifted it up a flight of stairs (and don't intend too), although I've seen a few crews from other services do that. :roll: I know what you mean though, a few stairs (like to get into our front door) isn't bad. The weight is no different then having your gear on it. Now I was told by supply that someone (I don't know if it is Stryker) is making a "lift" that will slide out of the ambulance to support the cot so you can lift the wheels up, and then it slides back in (along with the cot) into the ambulance. Our owner is very big on preventing injuries because he feels that if give your employees the equipment they need, the equipment that will make the job easier, the equipment they want, then you'll have a safer, healthier, happier, and more efficient medic. So now I have my powered cot, my defib platform I asked for, my oxygen tank holder I asked for, and now my charging base for my LP12, I just have to talk him into getting me a Caddy Escalade instead of this Ford Explorer for a squad.

I don't understand how someone would become lazier then normal, you still have to clean it yourself, still have to load it, still have to move it, etc. They do help with those who can't lift as much, however I hope that people don't think that just because the cot will lift itself, that means that people who can't lift can do this job. There are still times when you'll need to move a patient in weighs that this cot won't help you. I wonder how "water proof" it is.

I've had the same problem with the el-cheapo ones, but once we switched to the Blue Dots we have never had a problem.