Is this a whistle blower issue?

[flamingemt2011]

http://firelawblog.com/2011/10/louisville-metro-ems-paramedic-ordered-to-work-overtime-falls-asleep-in-patients-home-and-is-suspended/

then they fired her, can you say whistle-blower lawsuit ?

http://www.wlky.com/r/29472116/detail.html

[Asysin2leads]

They weren't violating any law. Therefore by speaking about her company's practices without authorization in an employment-at-will situation they were able to terminate her.

[paramedicmike]

There's no whistle blower lawsuit potential here as there wasn't any legal violations on behalf of the employers. What they do have, however, is a pretty bad PR incident questioning their ability to maintain safe operations by forcing their employees to work even when exhausted. Imagine the lawsuit had she been driving!

Built in overtime is pretty normal within the industry. Mandating overtime beyond that, as this case highlights, raises an awful lot of safety questions. Questions that should be asked and need to be asked especially given the work practices many EMS-ers engage in just to make it financially.

[craig]

glad that cant happen here, i feel that seeing she had a reprimand letter first and then after speaking to the media about she got terminated, well wrongful dismissal suit is there.

PR for the company is a nightmare as if they persue it and she appeals or sues then all the BAD styff comes out againts the company......

too much O/T putting lives at risk

dangerous work practices at XXXX company

you name them.....

stay safe

[DwayneEMTP]

Flaming, please read the rules of the site...

"Choose a subject that describes your topic. When starting a new topic, it is important that you choose a subject title that accurately reflects the content of the thread. Do not make people guess what your topic is. Threads posted with teaser titles like, "Guess what!," "I need help!," "What do you think?," "What would you do?," "What should be done?" or simply "Question!" will be deleted with extreme prejudice."

So far I've shown you the respect of renaming them for you instead of deleting them. But...you know. Do it yourself...

Dwayne

[Just Plain Ruff]

Flaming, please read the rules of the site...

"Choose a subject that describes your topic. When starting a new topic, it is important that you choose a subject title that accurately reflects the content of the thread. Do not make people guess what your topic is. Threads posted with teaser titles like, "Guess what!," "I need help!," "What do you think?," "What would you do?," "What should be done?" or simply "Question!" will be deleted with extreme prejudice."

So far I've shown you the respect of renaming them for you instead of deleting them. But...you know. Do it yourself...

Dwayne

Just hit delete.

I have always said that if you are too tired to work you don't work. If I'm being forced to work so much overtime that I fall asleep at the patients house, then I'm going to find a new job.

Plain and simple, you don't fall asleep at a patients house, regardless of how many hours of overtime you have worked.

There are two issues here.

1. The companyneeds to begin to address the number of mandatory overtime hours. That's a given.

2. What if she fell asleep in the back of the ambulance and the patient crashed.

I know of one medic who fell asleep in the back with the patient, the patient arrested and the patient was unassessed for over 10 minutes. The patient was a stable patient but the patient just happened to pick the back of the ambulance to die. Was being transported for a routine doctors office visit.

The medic voluntarily resigned and was subsequently disciplined by the bureau of EMS or so I heard. He actually is no longer a medic.

But seriously folks, if you are going to rat out your organization and hope to keep your job after doing so then you better do it anonymously. Putting your face on the news is a good way to get fired.

Why not instead of being the public face of the dirty laundry airing, why not work behind the scenes with the company to find out solutions to the problem. I can almost guarantee that any company will be happier to work with you behind the scenes than after you put your face out there trashing the company.

plus what the company is doing isn't illegal so it's not a whistelblower case. The fired employee has no recourse over the firing based on "whistleblower" status.

[Richard B the EMT]

2. What if she fell asleep in the back of the ambulance and the patient crashed.

While a serious issue, anyone recall the video showing a Paramedic reading while transporting, when the ECG sounds a "flatline" alert, and the Paramedic defibs, bringing the patient back?

Then, with another patient being transported, and the Paramedic again reading, the backing alert sounds, sounding just like the "Flatline", and without checking the patient, the Paramedic defibs an alert and awake patient.

The Paramedic should be at least aware of what is going on inside their vehicle. Hell, I swapped tasks with my partner one time that I damn near ran off the road, having almost fallen asleep when driving.

[Just Plain Ruff]

If you are too tired to work and take care of the patient then you are too tired to work. That's of course my opinion though.

I know that I've claimed the too tired to work only twice in my career and both times it was truly needed.

if you fall asleep with a patient or worse you fall asleep driving with a medic and patient in back then you are in deep trouble if something happens.

[DFIB]

I don't think it is a whistleblower case allthough it could possibly be construed as one.

Falling asleep on the scene means that 1. The medic had lost control of the situation or her own faculties. 2. Was not in control of scene safety. 3. Was not aware of his enviroment, patient or the changing status of either 4. Just unprofessional and embarrassing.

Any of these things would be sufficient to terminate.

[Richard B the EMT]

Any of these things would be sufficient to terminate.

Despite advising the supervisors that they had worked me to exhaustion, they kept me on, and I fell asleep, causing me to miss the EKG Flatline tone on my critical patient. Then, they fired me.

The City here is the jury. What say you: Legitimate termination of the employee, or unfair activity on the part of the employer?