Richard B the EMT

RuffEMS, you say they have not done this type test in 30 years? Per the FEMA and FCC stuff I've seen, they've never tested the entire system like this, ever. They should have, but have not. Anyway, we'll see, when they review this on the network newscasts tonight.

The City here is the jury. What say you: Legitimate termination of the employee, or unfair activity on the part of the employer?

Bumping up with roughly 18 hours before event.

Expecting a Conference Call, Vorenus? LOL.

In my humble opinion... 1) Ambulance Crewperson meeting a past patient, casually, in public, and unplanned, mentioning having treated them, and asking for a date: Creepy, but acceptable. 2) Ambulance Crewperson asking a patient, during a call, for a date: Creepy, and IMHO, unprofessional. 3) Ambulance Crewperson copying home address and/or telephone number of a patient from either the call report, or from the hospital records: (Alarm bells, horns, and sirens sounding!) HIPAA violation, unprofessional behavior, "charges package" against the crewperson, possible firings, and notification to state DoH for possible revocation of licence/certificate. 4) Patient asks Ambulance Crewperson for a date, while still being treated: Got to question if the patient is truly alert and oriented as to who they are, where they are, and when they are, and then, iffy as to going along with the request. Is the patient hot? (Actually, not going there, just beating some on the site to the punch with the joke.) 5) Ambulance Crewperson meeting a past patient, casually, in public, and unplanned, and former patient asks for a date: Depending on curiosity factor of crewperson, perhaps, but I see no legal or moral issues with that.

While a serious issue, anyone recall the video showing a Paramedic reading while transporting, when the ECG sounds a "flatline" alert, and the Paramedic defibs, bringing the patient back? Then, with another patient being transported, and the Paramedic again reading, the backing alert sounds, sounding just like the "Flatline", and without checking the patient, the Paramedic defibs an alert and awake patient. The Paramedic should be at least aware of what is going on inside their vehicle. Hell, I swapped tasks with my partner one time that I damn near ran off the road, having almost fallen asleep when driving.

I recall one assignment where the Lieutenant's cellphone, assigned by the department, was set to vibrate, but was buzzing so loudly, the 2 Paramedics, my partner, the patient's family, the patient, and I were all looking at him.

Just a thought, without documantation: Could the mother have inadvertantly implied FD needed for "Rescue", leaving the call taker(s) to believe the child was pinned under the vehicle?

Most on this site who know me through my musings, know I started out as a volunteer (Peninsula Volunteer Ambulance Corps of the Rockaways, incorporated, 1973-1996). When I started, while admittedly just wanting to drive while breaking most traffic rules, I quickly got the better idea that I, and the group, were there to help the people in the communities we served.

And what is wrong with that type system? FDNY EMS Command, and before them, the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation EMS, has been using it from before I even became an EMT in 1973. If you work from previously established call types, the medical director(s) have already assigned both priorities, and response patterns (BLS only, ALS only, or both). HHC EMS, and then FDNY EMS, used, and are using at least 50 call types, from ARREST (Pri 1) to MECHF (Pri 8) (MECHF is an ambulance down "mechanical" with a flat tire). As I think I already have posited, getting back on topic, having one agency check out the conditions to determine the need for another is an outdated policy, even when it originally was implimented. However, nothing is absolute. If there is an arrangement that in certain circumstances there might be danger to responding EMS crews, such as reports of shots fired, let the LEOs check out the scene first, but have the ambulance "staging" from a safe location close to the actual scene, until the LEOs say it's relatively safe to have the EMS crew enter. I also realize this may not be either everyone's policy, or even workable in some situations.

Kind of reminds me of a science-fiction story where the one man on a planet, whose job was pushing the button that operated the planetary sewage plant, went on strike, and the visiting "off worlder" who snuck in and turned the plant back on being ostracized and ordered to leave the planet.

Slight subject hijack: Who of us are the heroes, and who are the sidekicks?

I got a public "Thank You" from a member of my congregation, who thanked me with a donation to our house of worship, and the mention in the congregation's Bullitin. Not bad for handholding, and the "Stare Of Life", for just walking to the corner while off duty from my house.

NYC has roughly 3,000 calls per day, split between about 250+ ambulances. The figures came to about 2 point 3 MILLION calls during 2010.

Even when I started, in 1973, the concept of sending either the LEOs or FD to determine the actual need of the EMS was an assinine excremental antiquated idea. Send both, perhaps, but sending one to determine the need of the other? Heads in the city hall should roll!

I am unsure. I have called them up to get further information re some EMT City requests for information postings I have done, after advising them I was going to post their response.

Please spread the word, especially to those working 9-1-1 call recieving centers, in the US and Canada. Thanks. Richard B, the EMT. Emergency Management and Response Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) INFOGRAM 44-11 (November 3, 2011) Nationwide Test of the Emergency Alert System (Source: FEMA, Federal Communications Commission) The first nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) will occur on Wednesday, November 9, 2011, at 2 p.m. eastern standard time. The Emergency Management and Response—Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) learned that while the EAS is frequently used by state and local governments to send weather alerts and other emergencies, there has never been a national activation of the system. Although the national EAS test may resemble the periodic EAS tests that most Americans are familiar with, there will be differences in what people will see and hear. During the test, listeners will hear a message indicating that “This is a test.” However, the video test message scroll may not be the same nor use the words “This is a test.” Therefore, it is important for emergency responders to be familiar with the test and review the EAS Test Toolkit (PDF, 806 Kb). EAS participants include all broadcasters, satellite and digital radio and television, cable television, and wireline video providers. Future testing of the EAS will assess the effectiveness and reliability of other technologies to achieve the ultimate goal of timely alert and warning to the American public in the preservation of life and property. Two videos about the upcoming test are available on the FEMA Blog. DISCLAIMER OF ENDORSEMENT The U.S. Fire Administration/EMR-ISAC does not endorse the organizations sponsoring linked websites, and does not endorse the views they express or the products/services they offer. FAIR USE NOTICE This INFOGRAM may contain copyrighted material that was not specifically authorized by the copyright owner. EMR-ISAC personnel believe this constitutes “fair use” of copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use copyrighted material contained within this document for your own purposes that go beyond “fair use,” you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. REPORTING NOTICE DHS and the FBI encourage recipients of this document to report information concerning suspicious or criminal activity to the local FBI office and also the State or Major Urban Area Fusion Center. FBI phone numbers can be found online at http://www.fbi.gov/content/fo/fo.htm. Fusion Center information can be seen at http://www.dhs.gov/contact-fusion-centers. For information specifically affecting the private sector critical infrastructure, contact the National Infrastructure Coordinating Center (NICC) by telephone at 202-282-9201 or by e-mail at NICC@dhs.gov. When available, each report submitted should include the date, time, location, type of activity, number of people, equipment type used for the activity, the name of the name of submitting person and organization, and a designated point of contact.

Then, there is the story of the man transported to the trauma center due to the following: Early in the morning, Mr. Jones was awakened by his wife, and requested to fix a leaky pipe in the kitchen sink. Mr. Jones, who sleeps in the nude, decided to oblige, and just grabbed his tool kit, and started working on the pipe. Enter the family cat. She saw his scrotum swinging around as Mr. Jones worked, and decided to swat it! In doing so, it startled Mr. Jones that he lunged upwards, striking his head on the underside of the sink, knocking himself unconcious. But how did this cause Mr. Jones to have a broken femur? While carrying Mr. Jones downstairs, Mrs. Jones told the EMTs what had transpired, and they laughed so hard, they lost their grip on the Long backboard they had secured Mr. Jones to, and dropped him down the stairs!

So if a Paramedic from service "A" responds while off duty to a call in service "B"s area, unless service "A" has a reciprocal (spelling?) agreement with service "B", said Paramedic cannot use the OLMC of service "B", and utilize their Paramedic skills? What if the Service "A" Paramedic, while attempting to operate off duty in service "B"s area, attempts calling the service "A" OLMC? Are you saying the rules forbid such action mearly due to geographic location within the same state? If such is the case, I once again invoke Dickens' "Mr. Cacawber": "The law is a ass!"

Clergy, even if not your religion, can be helpful. I have more Priests than Rabbis as friends, even though I'm Jewish. Ask if your organization has one or more on staff, or if they (your organization) can make a reccomendation. Another way would be to ask for someone in "Pastoral Care" at one of your recieving hospitals. Those clergymen and women have the training, especially with dealing with survivors of those who died in their hospital facility.

Would I be correct that the area(s) in question might have several OLMC centers, and if you called, on your cell phone, the "wrong one" for a specific location, you'd be stepping on someone's toes, even if the offended OLMC would probably have given you the same authorizations and permissions?

Ali Hakim, "Oklahoma!"

9-1-1 calls in NYC are initialy answered by "civilian" police communications technicians, who, on determining the call is either a Fire call or an EMS call, sends the initial information to the appropriate call taking area (they handle PD by themselves). If EMS, a short list of questions, using a "flip-book" is asked of the caller, to whit, "Is the patient Awake? Breathing? male or female, what seems to be wrong?" That way, the call can be prioritized by means of our 50 something call-types, which are also set up for BLS only, ALS only, or both. The flip-book is an "Emergency Medical Dispatch" formatting, similar to the one originally created by Dr. Jeff Clawson, and both give followup first aid instructions to be read to the caller. Some of the lesser call types can be upgraded by the call takers, say, a person with pain in the arm gets one priority level, but if over 60 years old, same call gets the priority rased. Some notations here: The police and EMS call takers, while in different local unions, are the same "parent" union. The EMS call takers are actually EMTs and Paramedics, so are the same union as the folks in the ambulances. While not the same "parent" union, the Fire call takers and dispatchers are unionized (MIGHT be same parent union, I'm uncertain on specifics). As for buzz words like "Heart Attack"? As TV's "Dr House" knows and says, "People lie". We have "professional 9-1-1 callers", and presume most metropolises have them, too. Want an ambulance, fast? Say "Heart Attack". Want the LEOs forthwith? Say "Shots fired". Oh, I nearly forgot. An area in Brooklyn, still under the NYC 9-1-1 system, was taken over by a non union (no union of any type) ambulance service provider. They had a Cardiac Arrest, priority one call, but took longer to respond, allowing the patient to die on the scene, than a TV news truck covering the death, and even stopping for the traffic lights, travelling the distance from where the ambulance was street staging. Let an FDNY EMS crew do that, the union would try to blast the crew before management could. (Whn my local sees that a crew truely messed up, they distance themselves from the wrongdoers) Same for the ambulances in system, based at hospitals (different union). The blasting of the wrongdoers would be arriving in hours, at max, a week. In the case of the non union provider crew, punishment was almost a year later, not from the company they worked for, but the State DoH, following a complaint from the family of the deceased.

Red jellyfish? Be careful, some folks have such bad reactions to them, I've been called to the beach to remove them (the folks, not the "jellies") to nearby hospitals due to those reactions.

It is allowed, and the entire section of the forum has notation that some of the humor might be...not family magazine printable.