A report I'd like to see more often

[fiznat]

Check this one out:

http://www.myfoxcleveland.com/myfox/pages/...mp;pageId=1.1.1

[Scaramedic]

The problem is the touchy feely, kumbia singing motherf*cker they have for an EMS Commissioner.

"oh people won't have access to healthcare unless we haul every douche bag with a hangnail" :roll:

[wrenEMT]

That story right there shows everyone how much bull schit we have to go through when we pick up patients. And most of the time we don't get to hear dispatch. Call comes in for unknown medical and it turns out that some a$$ has a scrap on his finger or leg and wants stitches when it needs a 50 cent band aid.. Good thing they get charged $800 + a visit just to see the doc.. dumbasses.. gotta love them

[spenac]

That story right there shows everyone how much bull schit we have to go through when we pick up patients. And most of the time we don't get to hear dispatch. Call comes in for unknown medical and it turns out that some a$$ has a scrap on his finger or leg and wants stitches when it needs a 50 cent band aid.. Good thing they get charged $800 + a visit just to see the doc.. dumbasses.. gotta love them

charge a million they aint paying no how.

[WestSideBorderPatrol]

Haha, "You call, We haul"

[captainstandup]

If you are ever sitting around wondering why EMS is for the most part a dead end career, think of this idiot EMS Commissioner. Limpwristed bureaucrats like this guy continue to placate special interest groups and sell us out as an extension of public health. We are an emergency service; you know the one’s called when the Shinola hits the fan.

The EMS system "in as much as there is a national EMS system" is overloaded and broken. Politicians, insurance companies, hospitals, Dr. Offices all want someone else to care for the uninsured, underinsured segment of society. God help them is they are among those considered mentally ill!

How difficult is it for us, as health care providers, to get an appointment to see our family doctor in less than three months? I use the ER as my family doctor because the care is better, lab, X-ray and most specialty services are open 24/7.and in the same building and if I go to my doctor he is going to send me to the hospital for what? That’s right, lab work, X-rays, special services. My copay is less for the ER or urgent care than for my family doctor. If it’s late at night or weekend the hospital will issue enough meds to get us through until a pharmacy is open.

I can empathize with the patients who have no insurance of family doctor and live in squalor, needing to use the ER as their only access to health care. If they try to go to the health department they will be 300th in line behind an endless stream of illegal Mexicans. The situation is identical in most faith based free clinics and they can simply forget a private physician willing to accept someone without insurance.

As I have stated in other threads, there is already NO surge capacity in the US healthcare system in event of a pandemic event. Hundreds of thousands will die and many will do so without any attempt to care for them. There will simply not be enough ambulances, ER, clinic, MD office beds to care for even 5% of the surge.

Now return, if you will, to this idiot vomiting forth his "we need to take care of everyone" drivel. He and his kind are making the system a great deal worse by conditioning the public to believe its fine to call an ambulance for any situation.

Solutions to these problems are complex but I have a few suggestions:

1. An honest national effort toward tort reform to make it a great deal more difficult to sue EMS providers.

2. A national effort to implement EMD and include the Omega response option.

3. Educated prehospital providers competent in detailed assessment and capable of intelligent communication with MD’s and PA’s to allow alternative “routing” of patients.

4. Utilize technology to improve on-scene decision making. Pay a physician to be available for crew consult. Incorporate real time video/audio and integrate monitoring data to allow a team approach.

5. STOP transporting nursing home patients to hospitals for routine x-ray and lab analysis. Make it financially viable for them to utilize bedside imaging services and send lab techs to the patient’s location.

6. Create financial incentives for nursing homes to incorporate a "facility physician" or at least a PA who has regular daily hours in the facility. Make care available to staff which will aid in lowering health care insurance costs and help attract better employees.

These may be grandiose suggestions, but if you consider the negative impact of an overburdened emergency health care system and the cost of providing those services, It seems at least a portion of those costs could be offset or shifted through appropriate utilization of available resources.

[fiznat]

Some good points, Captian. The problem is - and I'm sure you realize this - is there is no motivation to do these things. Run down that list again with the perspective of a private EMS owner. Most of those options decrease profit, not increase it. Though they may all be good things for the health of our patients and of the system, they do not seem to jive with the current model for profit-based, private EMS.

I'm not saying the government should step in and fix things for us, but at the least we need a savvy businessman to come up with a model that makes these kinds of things possible while also maintaining the potential to make a buck on it. Otherwise I just don't see it happening, sadly.

[Asysin2leads]

Here's the cycle.

People with Medicaid/Welfare call for BS. Ambulance transports for BS. Medicaid/Welfare pays for BS. The EMS commisioner can sound all touchy feely he wants and act as altruistic as Mother Theresa, if his services stopped getting the $$$ from the state to play taxi for BS, he'd be singing a different tune very quickly.

Its a scam, people, it is. The reason we haul a-holes with minor emergencies from the ghetto and the trailer park is because we gets paid when we do.

[fiznat]

The reason we haul a-holes with minor emergencies from the ghetto and the trailer park is because we gets paid when we do.

Sorta. I happen to know that the bill collection rate in the poorer parts of our coverage area is usually less than 20%.

[FormerEMSLT297]

The problem is the touchy feely, kumbia singing motherf*cker they have for an EMS Commissioner.

"oh people won't have access to healthcare unless we haul every douche bag with a hangnail" :roll:

Yes he is,, however, think of it this way, over 4,000 responses a year for BS, if he lost those responses, his staffing would drop, and then he would lose people, less people, makes him less important (i think that might be his logic, anyway.)