Boston EMS Fraud

[Richard B the EMT]

I was just advised by a new associate of mine, the Paramedic Coordinator at Presbyterian-New York Cornell Weill Hospital (formerly Cornell Medical Center), of new information concerning the alleged falsification of EMT documentation, by an EMT instructor, who submitted course attendance sheets with the names of people who didn't attend the classes he supposedly taught.

Not to violate the copyright rules, but hopefully the Boston Globe won't pull down the link, at

The Boston Globe

As to this EMT Instructor-Coordinator, and those who faked the class under his, and his associates, I give an understatement of

Edited November 17, 2010 by Richard B the EMT

[DwayneEMTP]

Hey! Where in the hell is CSAR Medic! I want to see your certification young man!!

We were just bragging on how awesome Boston EMS is the other day...What the hell is going on up there? Friggin' mouthbreathers...

Dwayne

[WolfmanHarris]

How long are these refresher courses they've been blowing off? Either way it's unacceptable, just curious how lazy, negligent and dishonest they were being.

I'll never get the bitching about CME. Thankfully it's an incredibly small segment where I work and CME is provided in house (and mostly paid time), but a few people always seem to be down to the wire on their self-guided CE.

As a PCP I take 36 hours of classroom CE and two self-study packages to stay current. This is nothing. I easily do double of triple that in formal education each year and countless other hours in reading and study.

[Richard B the EMT]

Most here in the City know about this, and that it has been under investigation from last spring, at least.

[Just Plain Ruff]

This whole deal is just another one of the reasons why we are considered zero to hero's and have such little respect in the medical community.

[DwayneEMTP]

How long are these refresher courses they've been blowing off? Either way it's unacceptable, just curious how lazy, negligent and dishonest they were being.

I'll never get the bitching about CME. Thankfully it's an incredibly small segment where I work and CME is provided in house (and mostly paid time), but a few people always seem to be down to the wire on their self-guided CE.

As a PCP I take 36 hours of classroom CE and two self-study packages to stay current. This is nothing. I easily do double of triple that in formal education each year and countless other hours in reading and study.

I'm with you man..I'm one of the freaks that actually looks forward to my recerts. I learn or relearn something every time, and in each group of chucklehads there's at least a couple of other medics that seem to have my same stellar attitude that are interested in debate and asst bullshittery.

It really isn't a hard standard to uphold. I would be curious to see how many of those were firefighters, but I have no idea how that system works so it might not be a fair comparison.

Dwayne

[paramedicmike]

I'm sorry... "Boston EMS Fraud"?

You may not have committed a copyright violation by linking the article, but you did libel an entire organization who's name appeared nowhere in the linked story.

Boston EMS conducts its own in-house training. As such, I'm willing to bet they had absolutely nothing to do with the people mentioned in the article. They certainly weren't mentioned in relation to the (now) defendants.

Yes, some of the people mentioned and referred to in the article live in the greater Boston metro area. But that doesn't mean they worked for Boston EMS. To insinuate as much, with no evidence to support your position is well beneath your demonstrated standard of behaviour in these forums.

[DwayneEMTP]

I'm sorry... "Boston EMS Fraud"?

You may not have committed a copyright violation by linking the article, but you did libel an entire organization who's name appeared nowhere in the linked story.

Boston EMS conducts its own in-house training. As such, I'm willing to bet they had absolutely nothing to do with the people mentioned in the article. They certainly weren't mentioned in relation to the (now) defendants.

Yes, some of the people mentioned and referred to in the article live in the greater Boston metro area. But that doesn't mean they worked for Boston EMS. To insinuate as much, with no evidence to support your position is well beneath your demonstrated standard of behaviour in these forums.

Ouch...Like a moron I only breezed through the article not paying attention to such silly details as who, and where.

Point taken, and my apologies to anyone that may have been offended by my laziness. I was calling out CSAR as he and I just a few weeks ago were discussing that Boston EMS is known, to the best of my knowledge, to be one of the top systems in the country.

I will pay better attention in the future. Thanks for the reminder not to be a 'band wagon' shithead Mike...

Dwayne

[WolfmanHarris]

Yes, some of the people mentioned and referred to in the article live in the greater Boston metro area. But that doesn't mean they worked for Boston EMS. To insinuate as much, with no evidence to support your position is well beneath your demonstrated standard of behaviour in these forums.

Good point. I'd have to double-check, but I don't recall seeing any Boston EMS employees listed on the full list of those who falsified recert.

[Richard B the EMT]

OK, the complaints about it seemingly specifiying Boston are on me, as I am the original poster. Boston EMS is a part of the Boston Health and Hospitals Corporation, if memory serves, and was actually started up as a similar operation to the NYC HHC EMS, with their help, years prior to the NYC EMS being moved to the management of the FDNY.

There is at least one Boston Fire Fighter mentioned, and specified by name, but I think the BFD is NOT in the EMS business.