to transport or not to transport

[Bieber]

Bierber I hope I did not offend you. I appreciate your comments and your ability. I was talking in general and was not meaning anything twords anyone in particular.

I agree that we all make descisions base don our own knowledge and thats exactly what we all should be doing. I guess my rant was more for the folks that think they are or can be the end all be all of emergency medicine.

Agan sorry if my little rant before offended anyone. I did not mean to come off that way, I just wanted to shake the box a little and have folks think about things a little.

Not at all, UglyEMT. I can understand where you're coming from, and I know your heart is in the right place. Don't ever worry about offending me, I've got thick skin and I don't take things personally. This is exactly why EMS entered the world of the internet, so we could have these kinds of discussions and learn from each other.

[PCP]

I am sorry, but I do not understand how and why you would not have the local ambulance transport a patient to the hospital unless if YOU feel that their life is in danger? NOt sure how your system is run, but ours is run that fire and ambulance respond to medical, trauma, mva calls and it is NOT up to the first repsonders to decide if the pt. needs to be tranported or not. Yes a pt. can decline to be transported, but we always do our best to talk them into going to seek further evaluation by a physician and if we can't then we "code X" them and have the police, fire, or family member sign as a witness. Waiting half an hour for a family member to transport them to the hospital to me is just looking for trouble.

PATIENT CARE IS NUMBER ONE and that includes TRANSPORTING!!