My Taxi Service

[Richard B the EMT]

Patients don't cause EMS abuse. EMS causes EMS abuse by giving the public one number to dial, and no options.

I believe you and I have been to this dance before. Would you agree with my position that 9-1-1 is a victim of it's own success?

[hatelilpeepees]

As The Rock would say, "Know Your Role". It is your role to give the best care possible to the patient that is in front of you, regardless what is going on in the rest of the world. It is your supervisor's role to ensure that there are enough ambulances to handle the call volume, to rotate those units to where they are needed, and to have a plan for when there are no ambulances available. When you start leaving "BS" patients (in your mind) at home, you will open yourself up to all kinds of problems.

Let me ask you this question; right after 9/11 I bet everyone in this room called FEMA and volunteered to respond to NY if needed. What if instead of just volunteering, half the medics in your state dropped everything to go to NY, for what turned out to be a body recovery effort instead of a rescue. How many patients would have died because of the lack of ALS responders left in your state to handle the calls ? Their heart would be in the right place, but it would have been a poor choice. Abandoning a patient in front of you, to respond to a patient that has less than 1% chance of surviving is not a good choice.

[hatelilpeepees]

As The Rock would say, "Know Your Role". It is your role to give the best care possible to the patient that is in front of you, regardless what is going on in the rest of the world. It is your supervisor's role to ensure that there are enough ambulances to handle the call volume, to rotate those units to where they are needed, and to have a plan for when there are no ambulances available. When you start leaving "BS" patients (in your mind) at home, you will open yourself up to all kinds of problems.

Let me ask you this question; right after 9/11 I bet everyone in this room called FEMA and volunteered to respond to NY if needed. What if instead of just volunteering, half the medics in your state dropped everything to go to NY, for what turned out to be a body recovery effort instead of a rescue. How many patients would have died because of the lack of ALS responders left in your state to handle the calls ? Their heart would be in the right place, but it would have been a poor choice. Abandoning a patient in front of you, to respond to a patient that has less than 1% chance of surviving is not a good choice.

[Dustdevil]

I believe you and I have been to this dance before. Would you agree with my position that 9-1-1 is a victim of it's own success?

To a great extent, I have to agree! When you dumb everything down for simplicity, you have to expect a dumb and simple result.