strippel

We have them on most of our vehicles, and is does save time. But not much. There are no Opticom controlled traffic signals in the city, only SOME of the outlying townships and boroughs have them. The big issue is not assuming that you have control of the intersection. We have had occurances when there is an engine coming one way, and an ambulance another. If one or both don't pay attention to who actually has control of the intersection (ie: just checking the flashing white light, and not the green), it can cause problems. (Insert volunteer slam here).

I started many years ago with a volunteer 911 service. That turned into working for a private transport service, which did 90% scheduled and unscheduled IFTs, and about 10% 911 back up for a small city. As my life changed, so did my jobs. After working inside the hospital, I transferred outside to a non-profit (quasi-hospital based) service. I worked there for years, running mostly city/country 911 calls, mixed with all the different transports you could think of. When I got my medic, the IFTs decreased for me, but increased for the service. Now, I work for a government agency, and do not do IFTs with them. I am still part-time with the other agency, and get my share of IFTs. Ive been lucky. There are a few nursing home shuttles here and there, but most of mine now are for higher levels of care. The transports range from 1-4 hours one way, with a nurse, and some of the sickest patient's Ive ever seen. I like the learning aspect of the "specialty" transports, but still remember my early days. It is just as important to talk with an other person, and hear about their life as it is to take care of the sickest of patients. Maybe just not as exciting. All deserve your respect and care.

It depends. At my full time (government) we are "allowed" 30 minutes for a BLS call and 45 minutes for an ALS call. About half of that time is waiting on a bed and nurse. We have to hand write our pcr (sorry, report) before we leave. I have good partners, and the ambulance is usually ready within 5 minutes of getting a bed. Of course, I write while we are waiting. My average time is about 30 minutes. At my part time, we are available as soon as the patient is off our litter. Hospitals are located in our district, and we do computerized charts back at station, or on the way back in the ambulance. Charts must be written within 24 hours. We rarely wait on a bed or a nurse, and have a station at the hospitals for restock.

Sorry I haven't been on in quite a while. I have been very busy with my new job. But anyway... The girl I'm seeing will be graduating paramedic school in the next 2 months. I am looking for a gift for her. I don't want to go with the standard new steth , t-shirts, or EMS jewelry. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Thank You.

Well... I was registered for the full conference, but got a new job. I cancelled the registration, but still have my paid for room at The Marriot. Good thing my new gig is in Balto, so I will be available for the meet-up. I may also be getting back in for at least part of the conference. Anyone wanting to share my room

I just left my parents house from our Christmas dinner, and stopped at the grocery store. As I was walking the isles aimlessly, looking for the few food items I needed, a gentleman walked up to me and said, "you don't remember me, do you?" I stared at his face, and didn't recognize him. He said "I want to thank you". The man explained that he called 911 a few weeks ago, and I was out his house. As he talked, I remembered that he had been at his FMD, and diagnosed with pneumonia the day before. He called us with fever and profound dyspnea. The man stated that he had a long hospitalization, and after 5 weeks was recently allowed to go back to work. He was diagnosed with blood clots. The man continued to thank me (my partner and our fleet person who happened to be in the area) for our help. I am occasionally thanked after a call, but it has been a while since I was remembered like this. It felt nice. This (and a few other events recently) allowed me to reaffirm my feelings on a career choice. One night last tour, my partner and I got called for a specialty transport. Our hospital does not deliver babies at it's main location, and a (high risk) pregnant woman arrived in the EMD. We we called to take her to the Women's Hospital. We arrived, and the patient was in labor. We watched a baby being delivered. In the next room, an 8 year old boy was injured by a bull, and would be lucky to survive surgery. Nurse walks up and states how ironic it is, and just before Christmas. Turns out the mother and baby are related to a coworker, and all are doing well. I have not heard how the child is doing.

A few years ago, our one fully paid fire department considered billing us (non-profit, quasi-hospital based) for assist calls. (Not crashes, but lift assists and the like. Serious calls that we are unable to back ourselves up). Our management embraced that, then stated that the city would be billed for fire and police incident standbys. Also, we would bill the city for workmens comp for injured firefighters and police officers. That stopped very rapdily. Since then, fire and police have been willingly responding on all possible cardiac/respiratory arrest calls. Within the last 2 months, the fire cheif approached our managment, and wanted to respond on all ALS calls to keep firefighters active.

You are a sick little monkey. Really, she is 30, been out drinking with her. Dust, I'll add you to my friends. I could tell you about my friend. When he was 21 he dated a 14 year old. Eeewww. :snorting: :puke:

prpg now lives near me, and has been busy. I'm sure he'll be active again soon.

I have worked in vans for BLS 911, and recently ran a call as an ALS provider. I was assisting one of our BLS trucks. There was 1 EMT, an EMT student, the patient, and me. Needless to say, the student tried really hard to be part of the wall. We only have 1 van left, and it's on the short list to leave. (other than annual 'improvements', the rest of our 15 trucks are the same).

All ALS services are required to have a medical director. BLS are supposed to, especially if they have AEDs (which they should), or give patient assisted meds, and Epi-pen