Would You Run Emergency To This?

[paramedicmike]

thats one of the things I was getting at with my line of questions Mike.

D'oh!

Yes. So it is.

I missed your post when I was reading through the thread. It's been a long stretch of nights. I'm going to bed.

[triemal04]

For those of you advocating driving emergently to this call based on anecdotal personal experience, do you also think we should be going emergent to ALL calls, or all calls that you have gotten the wrong information for at some point in your career and should have had a different response mode?

Based on the given patient information, what requires an emergent response and treatement? Everyone can point to calls that had nothing to do with what you were told by your dispatch, but unless you do think it's appropriate to drive emergently all the time, at some point you have to start listening to what the 911-caller says.

(This ignores the fact that this was a 21-mile trip in an urban rush hour; if there truly was no closer unit available that actually would warrant the lights, though not any extra speed or anything other than routine driving.)

[Happiness]

Since I don't live in a place where there is traffic, but I still need to know the rules. If you are running code 3 in BC and you have to stop for any length of time, you will turn off your L&S until you start moving again and it is safe to turn them back on.

I have been dispatched Code 3 to a community apporx 105 km away. We go L&S and we may not even see another vehicle on the road, but the deer will stay off the road.

[triemal04]

Since I don't live in a place where there is traffic, but I still need to know the rules. If you are running code 3 in BC and you have to stop for any length of time, you will turn off your L&S until you start moving again and it is safe to turn them back on.

I have been dispatched Code 3 to a community apporx 105 km away. We go L&S and we may not even see another vehicle on the road, but the deer will stay off the road.

That will vary from area to area, though everywhere requires that you drive with "due regard" even with lights and a siren going. Personally, if I'm temporarily stuck in a line of cars I see no point in blasting my siren to get people to move...when they can't. So no reason to use that, though the lights stay on.

And depending on where you work there are many, many, many manymanymanymany places where traffic can be bad enough that you really do need the lights on to reach your destination in anything approaching a timely manner.

[Richard B the EMT]

And depending on where you work there are many, many, many manymanymanymany places where traffic can be bad enough that you really do need the lights on to reach your destination in anything approaching a timely manner.

Cab and bus drivers, as well as any emergency vehicle crew, can and will tell you that driving crosstown in midtown Manhattan, NYC NY, is sometimes considered a full time job in and of itself.

[rock_shoes]

In my service we would run L&S to that call because the MPDS system would spit it out as a 17D1, "Fall with Injury to Dangerous Body Area." Can't tell you how many 17D1s I've been on where the only injury is a 1/2" lac above their eye that has stopped bleeding by the time I get there ... but to the computer, its a head injury ...

Every response deserves a full risk/benefit analysis. If the risk to you, your partner, and the public outweighs potential benefit to the patient, what AMPDS spits out is completely irrelevant. Remember you are expected to be a professional driver in this event.

[island emt]

It would seem that the OP has gone by the wayside.

[jwiley40]

To me, it seems like common sense should take over. While I know that there is the need to run code three to calls because of our protocols, would you do in the small town a 0200 and wake up the ENTIRE town? I found that, while the protocols are there for a reason, so is common sense. I will have the lights on, but only use the sirens when it really is needed. At 0200 in a sleepy little town like mine, I don't.

[Richard B the EMT]

Nice of you to think of the neighbors. Hope you have big, open intersections where you can both see other traffic, and they can see you at 2 AM. that the siren shouldn't be sounding. Also nice that you don't cop the attitude "If I gotta be up, EVERYBODY has to be up".

However, the OP was referring to a busy area, and at rush hour.

PS: Some safety policies call for the siren to be engaged 200 feet from an intersection. Avenue intersections here in NYC are about 200 foot apart.

[uglyEMT]

I would say in this instance Lights Yes but no siren. I would actually use my air horns when necessary. In bad traffic with little to no speed I don't see the need for the siren if nobody can get out of the way. Intersections get the siren because I trust noone LOL

In my area I have to agree with jwiley40, I always use my lights to respond TO the call but sirens stay off until needed. Late at night the only thing I need to move off the road are the bears and deer so very rare to hear sirens in the wee hours.

As per our protocols all calls are responded to with Lights (siren when needed). The only time we respond without lights are for lift assists and transports (usually scheduled ahead of time). After clearing the scene its up to the crew how we transport to the hospital.