48 on, 96 off

[ccmedoc]

...If we leave a base without coverage we are fired and reported for abandonment. .

I understand the company wanting you to stay for coverage. I don't, however, think they can report you for abandonment if you don't have a patient in care, or have been dispatched to a patient. I think this is a scare tactic.

I would believe that the staying for relief is a business decision as opposed to medical necessity..If I'm wrong.. :oops:

[dhowes3]

I work 48 on 96 off and love it. I get four days off with my family. I will admit, I get tired sometimes but it works out. I work rural so there are days where I only run 2 calls in a 24 hour period. I can remember a few times only running 3 calls in 48 hours. We can lay down anytime we want. I work with a good crew so we take care of eachother.

We alternate calls during the day. If it is your first day then you run all calls after midnight unless back to back. then your second day at midnight you get to sleep and only get up when needed.

So if it is my second day and the new crew knows I been up all night they will run all calls til noon or so. that lets me and my partner sleep and rest. The crews I personally work with are great and like I said we take good care of eachother.

Thanks for the good word Brock. We do try to take good care of each other...I enjoy the 48 on and 96 off. I'm a single mom so this gives me four days with my "guys" to watch them play ball or whatever they may be up to. I do get tired some times more than others, but our crews are usually very observant about the needs of their co-workers. We are a family and do what we can to make sure everyone gets some rest.

[Arkymedic]

The problem is EMS is exempted from the normal wage & labor rulings. EMS has their own special areas, One have to contact them for interpretation, they will even discuss how difficult it is to decipher.

R/r 911

Exactly Rid

[firedoc5]

well, you didn't say it was a disaster or blizzard. There might be allowable circumstances.

What types of patients were you guys transporting in blizzard like conditions that warranted transport?

I know you cannot shut down but you sure can shut down to the calls that don't require to go NOW. But I wasn't there so I'm not sure what you were working against.

We covered three coal mines, which never shut down for weather, Interstate MVA's, a LOT of MI, CVA's for some reason. I assume due to barametric pressure going on with the weather, and it seemed that all five nursing homes decided to send everyone out for ingrown toe nails to pneumonia. Oh yea, three shooting in two hours. Just seemed like getting all the regular everyday calls but it's like they waited until the weather got bad. And since helo was down, I don't remember how many Interstate transfers made by other drivers, so that left two of us to do EMS transport in town along with FD EMS, but we were ALS providers for the rest of the county.

There was a post in this area that I did mention it was blizzard condition.

[jessicaCNAEMT]

This is a common event if not more in some rural places. Most assume since it is rural they will get rest, not considering some calls and transfers are in hours, not minutes. Yes, it could be a dangerous event. I just came off a 36 hour tour with about a total of 6 hrs of sleep. It happens way too often and since there is no regulatory sanction and enforce hours there is not much that will be done.

I even know of a flight service that had a flight nurse that worked 9/24 hr shifts with very little down time and since they were not CAMTS certified, not much could be done. When she rebuked about it, they questioned her dedication.... to say the least she informed them what they could do.

Personally, I like 24hr shifts because the available days off, but like many other services the run volume has increased with down time is a luxury.

IAFC has performed several sleep studies showing the effects.http://www.iafc.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=559

Ironically, truck drivers that transport cargo only can work so many hours, yet we that transport precious cargo and perform tasks that can be dangerous or life saving have no regulations. Make sense?

R/r 911

That is very true. DOT says OTR drivers drive 10 hours and that's it, doesn't matter where you are you shut down. You have to have so many days off between driving 70 hours too.

[emt982002]

I used to be on 5 days a week 24 hours at a time.. And that was if we were fully staffed, which 99% of the time we were not. I did that for almost 9 years and finally got tired of it and burnt out. So I resigned and went to part time status. Make more money and have a lot more time off.

DK