Should Medics fine 911 (or equivalent) abusers?

[Arctickat]

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0...from=public_rss

AMBULANCE officers are being called out to treat sunburn and shaving rashes - despite a $400,000 awareness campaign about the correct use of 000.

Fed-up paramedics have told The Courier-Mail they have seen little change in the attitudes of patients about the appropriate use of the emergency number.

[crotchitymedic1986]

As stated before, if only people who truly needed ambulances called ambulances, we would all be out of work. Flagrant abuse should be penalized, but stupidity shouldnt. If you are a plumber, part of your job has to do with dealing with other persons feces. If you are a cop, part of your job is directing traffic in the rain. If you are in EMS, part of your job is dealing with those who use it as a taxi, or a mobile minor illness clinic.

The sooner you stop letting stuff like this control your blood pressure, the longer you will live, and the happier you will be --- Serenity Now !

[aussiephil]

Why do people get so hung up on BS calls? Yeah we all hate them, but lets face reality, they are easy, keep us employed. I think what should be looked at is what companies, either government run or private are doing to activley encourage people who really need our services to call. Instead we seem hell bent on worrying about billing people who cant afford to use our services.

Consider this. IF ambulatory services were say FREE, yes we would see a minimal rise in the number of BS calls, because lets face it, the same idiots will call regardless, however we would also see a rise in the number of people who really need our assistance, people with unrelieved chest pain where the use of ASA & nitro are proven to improve outcomes.

Lets get off the beat the BS caller bandwagon, lets welcome them with open arms, they are really paying your wages after all.

[JPINFV]

Sure. I'll agree with fining abusers as soon as we can insure that those doing the fining are able to make proper medical decisions without falling back on a flow chart or medical control. I don't think a 9 month medic course will be able to accomplish that.

[speedygodzilla]

While I believe that we should be able to cite people for obvious abuse I see a possible down fall. When you lecture/educate or cite a pt you may scare them into not calling us when they do in fact need the help. Remember the emergency is define by the pt differently than it is to us. I believe that education should be given first and documented as such and reviewed by the appropriate higher ups before we can take the next step and cite, or charge for us coming out and performing primary assessment, vitals, and taking a ambulance off the streets (not that is chargeable), etc. I am not bothered too much by the abusers of the system that are not repetitive. It is the repeat offenders that get me. When you can hand the pt the refusal sheet and they know that those little 8 lines are for their initials and where to sign with out you saying a word shows you how much they know and how many times they have possibly abused the system.

Sticky subject

[BushyFromOz]

Queensland Ambulance Service i think is in a bit of a pickle with this.

QAS used to be funded by a combination of voluntary subscription, government funding with your usual free care for those on a pension card. That was changed to being a levy which is not much at all (cost escapes me) on household electricty bills. So instead of free transport/treatment being abused by those limited to low income health care cards, its now open to abuse by everyone, hence the whole "im entitled to it" view.

the very mechanism that gave them the ash they were denied for so many years by successive governments has also opened them up to "use and abuse" that they just weren't prepared for or resourced to deal with.

At least thats my understanding, if someone could find Ozmedic he'd know.

As to fines, yeah, im for em. governments here set improvements in porductivity as KPI's for pay increases and funding models. Get some of the BS out of the back of the trucks and you have a productivity increase right there.

[cynical_as_hell]

In the area I work in, we don't have to worry so much about the abusers. The biggest reason is because they are all too stupid to understand anything anyway, so why even try. And the other reason is because our medical director has a very low tolerance for frequent flyers that never have a true medical problem. He tells them up front that if they come into his ER again, and there is nothing found wrong with them, then he will have them arrested for trespassing. That usually seems to work too. Those who don't take him seriously when he tells them that, find out when they get there and the police show up. Now don't get me wrong, if they come in and they truly have something wrong, then he treats and releases them, no big deal. But if he does his evaluation and nothing is wrong, then he calls the police.

[crotchitymedic1986]

How about this instead -- lets lobby medicare for a new billing rate: BLS, ALS1, ALS2, and FA. FA will be the fatass charge we get to charge any patient who is in excess of 300lbs. Then we could also add the FA2 charge which would be for a fatass that lives on a floor higher than the ground floor. The medics and firemen who run the call get to split the FA and FA2 charges.

[Arctickat]

Crotchity, you're in Canada aren't you? Since when do we need to lobby a United States health care compensation program?

[crotchitymedic1986]

I did my ems in the USA, not in it anymore. But feel free to lobby canada for the same.