BS calls

[Siffaliss]

Here is the bottom line, if we wish to move forward as a Profession, WE have to deal with primary health care, stop being cocky pricks and do though workups, do non judgemental clinical evaluations before we will ever be called a "profession" otherwise your just a whiner.

Oh and drink to excess on days off, I do and it works

cheers

... and all the calls are determined to be BS after hx and vitals. The shelters are booming squint! And I'm not about to let my career come to an end over something which is later found to be BS.

[romneyfor2012]

Holy plagerism Batman, just when you go and try to help out a troubled emt from going down in flames try to argue the other side of the coin ... I sure wish I could change my rep votes now.

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Hate to disagree, but I saw a patient who was cyanotic from constant hiccups, had them all day. Sure it was a one in a million kind of thing, but I saw it. I think flaming is one of those rookies who believes EMS is supposed to be what he read in a text book, and is disillusioned when he sees/hears real EMS. Imagine you worship Tom Brady (football QB) and then you see him on TV bitching about the fans not being supportive enough and that he is not paid enough ? How would you see him from that point on ? So go easy on him, his heart is probably in the right place, he just does not have the intellect to put his thoughts into conversation.

[Siffaliss]

Double dog dare accepted, my answeres are below each question. If your system does not have a tiered response or enough units on the road, then that is your systems fault, do not blame the patient. Your job is to treat the patient in front of you. And let's be honest, this is about you having to get out of bed and run a call, its not about the supposed cardiac arrest down the street. Your system should post units so that all areas are covered while any truck is on a call, and you should have enough trucks to handle your peak call volume.

Wow, are you ever an idiot. In an ideal system, there would be no sick call-ins or people off because of a work related injury. We'd be able to predict the amount of calls that would come in on any given shift, and be able to pull staff out of our ass to cover all of those calls without having to hold the less serious ones until a unit becomes available.

If you really did work in this field you'd know that things can happen which are beyond our control, like call volume on any given shift, sick calls, people quitting, MCI's, etc. Plan for the worst and hope for the best.

I know what my job is and don't need someone like you telling me what that is, thanks

Have you ever actually worked on an ambulance? Are you being ignorant and self-righteous because you simply don't know any better? A ruptured bowel or acute appendicitis for example would present with significantly more on assessment than abdominal wall muscle type pain. Do you feel that every patient should be transported no matter what because you lack confidence in your ability to perform an assessment?

The chronic drug abuser is another example. This person doesn't require ambulance transport. They require referral to an appropriate drug counseling service if and only if they have reached the point they're willing to accept such help. You seem to have this undying belief that every problem can be solved by playing taxi to the hospital. Guess what. That's not how things work. There was a time when the majority of people calling emergency services actually required their attendance. Those days have passed. A huge part of re-educating the public as to the purpose EMS serves is going to be refusing transport to those who abuse the system before those abuses cause the system to collapse. We can’t afford to have the initial gate-keepers to the system come in the ER after the first tier has already been abused. Allowing things to spiral out of control like that drastically increasing the cost of EMS is an absolute disservice to the public.

Wow ... YUP! Well said.

Edited November 13, 2011 by Siffaliss

[tniuqs]

rockshoes: A huge part of re-educating the public as to the purpose EMS serves is going to be refusing transport to those who abuse the system before those abuses cause the system to collapse. We can’t afford to have the initial gate-keepers to the system come in the ER after the first tier has already been abused. Allowing things to spiral out of control like that drastically increasing the cost of EMS is an absolute disservice to the public.

Agreed rockshoes .. in part, but pretty doom and gloom buddy, the system will not collapse and this from a semi anarchist position

The problem is the legislation, this has to be changed first to actually permit WE the shareholders of our society the latitude accomplish this goal.

Unfortunately the ambulance chasing lawyers have made precedent and extremely difficult, but not impossible to change, that with the right political leaders being apprised from the front line staff and with a plan to implemented and that will not become news headlines if just one medic screws it up, my biggest fear.

So all that wish to tell their war stories about BS calls, this in an open to the public EMS forum for fun bitch session please think again is my point, despite ERdocs giddy up. I find it curious that "burn out" is so highly regarded in our "Culture of EMS" I know of many that after just a couple of years on the streets believe that this is some form of a right of passage ?

Yes I am all too aware of the down and outer's stacked like cord-wood in the Spady Type centre(s) our present political leaders in funding the right things, for example a 1.4 million dollar federal give away to you know who to accept FTMDs to be fast tracked to become Paramedics .. good grief batman.

dearest Siffilass: the last time I will shred for buzz kill alone and demonstrate any support a flamingemt .. as the second after I posted, he in his wisdom chose to disrespect 11/11/11 2011 .. very poor judgment, yet I can forgive him he's just on the very sharp portion of the leaning curve.

I wish him luck in his goal of promotion of gay rights in EMS .. quite clearly he has failed to gain any support from myself with the plagerising / paraphrasing ... a pitty that.

cheers

[rock_shoes]

Agreed rockshoes .. in part, but pretty doom and gloom buddy, the system will not collapse and this from a semi anarchist position

It definitely won’t collapse anytime soon in places like Calgary. Holy resources batman (at least compared to what I’m used to dealing with). I realise there are some very busy units in Calgary but ALS on every single unit with enough units to almost guarantee back-up whenever you need it is rather luxurious compared to what some of us are used to. Calgarians haven’t a clue how fortunate they are to have that. Sections of the Greater Vancouver Regional District however run on the verge of collapse on an almost daily basis. There are times when a single unit is left covering the entire tri-cities area. Alpha and Omega calls going for hours prior to a response (and we all know how accurate AMPDS is). Even outside of the GVRD. Kamloops, a city of over 80,000 people, has one 24 hour ALS unit. The only other ALS resource in the city is a dedicated ground/rotary CCT unit that runs dayshift only. I know what a system on the brink looks like because I’ve worked it. Zero rural ALS resources, city resources spread far too thin, and a nurses union so hostile with other healthcare workers they’ve actually been booted from the BC Federation of Labour. The problems don’t even stem from the fact BC has a provincial based service. It’s largely due to an inadequate resource allocation plan. Throw in a few too many calls for “stubbed toes” and collapse causing death actually becomes a possibility.

Believe me I wish it wasn't the case. Paraphrased from Dr. Bracket. I wish it were possible to deliver a cardiologist to the door-step of every cardiac patient calling for assistance. Until that becomes a reality Paramedics will just have to do the best they can.

[romneyfor2012]

No, flaming had some good points, although it is rare> You can predict your call volume fairly easily, if nothing else, you can pick your busiest day and staff for that day everyday >Not efficient, but predictable> You should also have a plan for sickouts and injuries, but most municipal systems will not entertain the thought of using part-time employees to fill vacancies. At one service I worked at we had an extra medic for each batallion every day, and those extras floated all over the county to cover holes, if there were none, they took the mobile supervisors place so that they could do office work.

[Siffaliss]

No, flaming had some good points, although it is rare> You can predict your call volume fairly easily, if nothing else, you can pick your busiest day and staff for that day everyday >Not efficient, but predictable> You should also have a plan for sickouts and injuries, but most municipal systems will not entertain the thought of using part-time employees to fill vacancies. At one service I worked at we had an extra medic for each batallion every day, and those extras floated all over the county to cover holes, if there were none, they took the mobile supervisors place so that they could do office work.

A prediction is still just a guess. The busiest shift I can recall over the last 5 years was a weeknight with no special events or major concerts going on, and did not occur during a typical payday or welfare week. Extra staff? No sick call ins? Only happens on a stat holiday were we get paid extra but we still get run off our feet. Nature of the beast in a failing system.

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Ah Turnip! Why did you have to go and ruin things by pointing out that this is not a private place to blow off steam and have a good laugh at the lowest common denominators expense. Now I'm going to have to think about what I post... for the benefit of the profession of course.

[Richard B the EMT]

In a perfect world, our services as EMTs and Paramedics would not be required.

[EMS1700]

Thankfully I now find myself in a tiered system on a flycar, so the days of ALS to every BS call are over. Reflecting back to years of hot summer nights in the south on the 4th 12 hour night shift in a row, with nothing but system status management post, followed by the needy citizen calling from the payphone at the quick store across the street from one hospital and req transport to another. This is why all the guys I started with are either RN's, PA's, Doc's take your pic, but have moved on and left me...