D.C. Fire and EMS Investigating Crews' Delayed Response

[News]

Two ambulance crews may have actually discussed the transport amongst themselves while a 93-year-old injured woman waited for help.

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[JakeEMTP]

And the hits just keep on coming.

[DFIB]

This part of the article is interesting "D.C. Fire and EMS has been under fire ever since to revamp its system so that seriously injured people get to the hospital in less than seven minutes."

Is this possible?

[Bernhard]

This part of the article is interesting "D.C. Fire and EMS has been under fire ever since to revamp its system so that seriously injured people get to the hospital in less than seven minutes."

From the rest of the article and comments I think they mean "get an ambulance in less than seven minutes". Anything other would be a bit stupid since quality of care isn't measured by time to hospital alone (and not by "7 minutes").

BTW, what was the type of the call? Was it stated as emergency? Or was it dispatched as non-emergent transport? The article isn't very clear on this, just speaking of "transport" the whole time.

But on the other hand I already witnessed crew doing similar things just to not getting overtime. It's stupid and when it just got common management made a very clear statement about this habit not allowing it anymore.

The other way round: did you ever get to scene to relieve colleagues at the end of their shift? I once did it (~20 years ago, incident was just around the station's corner), I know some recent cases and I'm not sure what to think about it. I never did it since then, normally I even wouldn't know where they are when just entering the station for shift change. This surely implies you take the same ambulance from them and not a new one.

I would think, if it's their call, they work it - including all the informations they have from the beginning. And doing unsuspected overtime simply is part of the job. I wouldn't expect from my successors to relieve me at scene (sometimes I would've been glad if they appeared anyway, buit that's a totally other story).

[JakeEMTP]

Bernhard, I have on occasion met the off going crew at a scene. They simply provided me with the information they had and my crew took over pt. care. Not much different than turning over pt. care at the hospital really. I know they were grateful and we were on the clock anyway. In return, they have done the same for us.

But, in this case, they drove right by the pt.'s residence to go to the other station. That is unacceptable. If you are dispatched to the call, you go. Simple as that. Sometimes you have to work overtime. It's the nature of the beast.