BS calls

[PCP]

Hello everbody!

Had a call on my last shift where I felt it was a bit of a BS call but who I am to judge.

My partner and I where dispatched out for a cold 14 year old male. When we arrived my partner asked the guy what was going on and the patient's response was " I am on my way home from a friends house and I am cold." My partner asked if he called 911 because he was cold and wanted a ride home? The patient's response was " yes ". My partner explained to him that 911 is not used for this type of situation but we would give him a ride home this time. We drove for about 5 minutes when the patient said we could drop him off now as he was only about five minutes from home.

Curious to know what kind of BS calls the rest of you get.

[mobey]

These people get greeted by the RCMP at our destination.

Can't remember the name of the law broken.... but there is one.

[PCP]

Mobey I did not realize that there is a law against this type of abuse towards the system but find it very interesting and will be looking to see if I can locate that law.

I just felt that it was a waste of resources as we were very busy that night.

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Oh this has the potential to be a really fun topic. My biggest BS call was for a vaginal bleed at 3 in the morning. When I asked when her last period was she just looked at me stupid and said "about a month ago" I stood there looking at her, didn't say a work. It took a full minute before the light came and she clued in...

[PCP]

Oh this has the potential to be a really fun topic. My biggest BS call was for a vaginal bleed at 3 in the morning. When I asked when her last period was she just looked at me stupid and said "about a month ago" I stood there looking at her, didn't say a work. It took a full minute before the light came and she clued in...

That is funny! Not so funny for the patient as we all make mistakes but I stil would have to laugh after the call was done.

[DwayneEMTP]

Once had a lady call because she was out of vicodin and her husband wouldn't take her to get a refill.

Had to take her despite explaining the situation to her. She felt it was a medical emergency, crawled into the back and away we went. The ER Doc was completely tearing her ass up when we left. Easily the most verbally violent scene I'd ever seen in the healthcare arena.

About two hours later I heard another unit dispatched to her address..."Pt complaining of back pain."

We, our service, hauled her to all of the local hospitals several times that day. What I didn't think to ask, until it was too late, was how the hell she was able to get a ride home from all of the hospitals, but not to the pharmacy?

Dwayne

[ERDoc]

Once when we were waiting to be traiged another crew brings in a 20 something y/o female with sunburn to the top of her feet. No blistering but painful enough to pull the vollies out of bed at 3am.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Had a call to the scene of a person who had left home at 1am and was found 3 hours later, cold and exhausted. She was a paraplegic and had one of those motorized wheelchairs. She made it about 2 miles before her battery on the wheelchair died.

We got called because she was "cold" just like the OP's patient.

So we were already up, we just loaded her in the ambulance, put her wheelchair in the back as well and drove her the 2 miles to her house.

She thanked us and we went on our merry way.

3 weeks later she was hit by a car while crossing a busy highway. She had a crosswalk 500 feet to the north of where she was hit but she apparantly was too stubborn to use it. I worked that call as well. Sucks to be the only ambulance in the county at 9pm at night.

[flamingemt2011]

There is no such thing as a BS call, every call is a cry for help (except for false calls). Some are more acute, some are actually not acute at all. Calls only become BS, when you the practitioner feel that your time has been wasted. If you are paid for every hour you work, then you should not gripe about any call that you run (a volunteer has the right to be mad).

Imagine your electrician scolding you or getting pissed off because he did a service call to your home and found that they only problem you has was that a circuit breaker tripped in your fusebox, and you were to dumb to go check that before calling a professional.

[Happiness]

There is no such thing as a BS call, every call is a cry for help (except for false calls). Some are more acute, some are actually not acute at all. Calls only become BS, when you the practitioner feel that your time has been wasted. If you are paid for every hour you work, then you should not gripe about any call that you run (a volunteer has the right to be mad).

Imagine your electrician scolding you or getting pissed off because he did a service call to your home and found that they only problem you has was that a circuit breaker tripped in your fusebox, and you were to dumb to go check that before calling a professional.

So you dont concider a False call a BS call. Have you ever been in a situation where your dealing with an ass that abuses the system for a ride up town and the real pt dies because of it..... I have and it sucks the big one. Maybe in big cities where there are 50 ambulance you can deal with the BS call but if you only have one that is manned it is a danger. It dosnt have anything to do with wasting my time it has to do with wasting the time a pt that is in a real emergency has. Oh and there is no difference with time being wasted if you are a volly or paid.