EMS Abuse

[Just Plain Ruff]

Good article from San Antonio - not sure how accurate the medics response to this report were though. sounded kind of biased

http://www.emsresponder.com/article/articl...n=1&id=5200

[StickEm]

Hmm.

Some areas are worse than others. I know that Grady EMS is positvely SWAMPED with BS "My toe hurts; take me to Grady."-type calls, while some other areas, (more rural,) have legit calls and only BLS trucks.

Where I work, it's 90% BS for 911 trucks, while the transports are usually always legit.

Pt. is non-ambulatory secondary to injury or age, requests transport to (insert care-facility here,).

I'd rather get up at 0300 for someone's non-ambulatory grandma than some ass who is faking a MVC injury.

-Though I don't show it, I am generally annoyed by frquent flyers and the like.

My favorite is when they say over and over that "I'm not joking, nobody believes me. This is serious!" even though they call four times a week.

It's THOSE people who need to go to jail.

The jerks that tie up an ALS truck because they don't get enough attention from anyone else.

Can we press charges?

[Just Plain Ruff]

sure you can press charges all you want but getting a prosecutor to charge someone for requesting medical care no matter how much BS we think it is is going to be quite difficult.

[paraloco]

I learned to deal with the frustration that BS frequent-flyers cause by realizing years ago that it's no skin off my nose to take these folks to the hospital if they want to go. If one of Somebody's (prominent politician, dignitary) loved ones died as a result of a unit/units being tied up on these calls, THEN we'll see some kind of change, probably not before. Don't get me started on the police. PM me if you want some details about what I've seen them do (or not do)

[Chief1C]

:cussing:

We got stuck a half mile from a patients residence during a blizzard in 2002, and had to walk in to the scene. She called b/c she didn't feel safe driving (neither did we), so she needed a ride to mail some bills. She thought if she called an ambulance, we could take her to the hospital, since the electric company was on the same street, she could just drop it off there and stay at the hospital until the storm was over, then we could take her back home.

[WelshMedic]

Hi,

The above post beggars belief in my eyes. It also raises some important questions (well, they are to me anyway ); What's dispatches role in dispatching for this call? What did she tell them? That she wanted to post some bills?

Aren't you able to refuse transport in such obvious cases of misuse? It would drive me crazy to pander to every whim of these sorts of people.

This is one of the reasons why EMS is, in some cases, in such a financial mess. Shameful!

WM

[Asysin2leads]

I suggest that you might want to check into social services for some of your frequent fliers, especially in the case of children. For instance:

You are dispatched for a 10y/o with difficulty breathing secondary to asthma. You have been to this residence many times before. You ask the mother if she had the prescription for her child's asthma filled from last time you brought them in. She stated she had not, because he was fine when he came home from the hospital, and she knew if he got bad she could just call you again. In this case, filing a report with your respective child protective agency is the appropriate thing to do. Not having a child's prescription filled if the means are available is a form of neglect.

Another time to have them involved is in the case of the poor grandma who lives alone with a billion cats and is skinnier than a runway model. If someone does not have the means to take care of themselves, they should not be living on their own. EMS more than anyone else can see the "big picture" when it comes to these situations. The police, who may accompany you on the calls, may not be able to understand the living situation as well as you do. The ER staff will not be able to see the residence like we can.

[Richard B the EMT]

This comment is towards the paid for service providers, not the unpaid volunteers.

Look at it this way: Even with the really non emergent patients calling, and yes, it can be an annoyance, it keeps me and my colleagues employed. If they didn't request our help, my boss might not need me, excise me out of the company, and I want to keep food on the table.

[Asysin2leads]

Sorry Rich, I never bought the "It keeps us in business" line. Saying BS calls keep us in business is like saying criminals keep cops in business. There may be some truth to it, but it doesn't mean that we should accept it.

I know agencies like ours don't mind BS calls so long as they have Medicare or Medicaid and I can check the "ALS assessment" box, but you know something, its still wrong. Everytime an ambulance goes somewhere, lights and sirens or not, it puts people at risk. It puts the crew at risk, the public at risk, and the patient at risk. People dialing 911 for routine and chronic medical problems, or for reasons other for than what 911 EMS response was designed for is wrong, even if we make money doing it, its still wrong.

[Chief1C]

Hi,

The above post beggars belief in my eyes. It also raises some important questions (well, they are to me anyway ); What's dispatches role in dispatching for this call? What did she tell them? That she wanted to post some bills?

Aren't you able to refuse transport in such obvious cases of misuse? It would drive me crazy to pander to every whim of these sorts of people.

This is one of the reasons why EMS is, in some cases, in such a financial mess. Shameful!

WM

I only told you what the call was for, I didn't think it was necessary to run through the whole call. The dispatch center will follow through all calls, no matter how asinine. I personally think they hate us, but that's neither here nor there. Just covering their own asses. If the patient won't tell them what is wrong, they either label it as an unknown medical, or an unknown situation. One gets PD, BLS and ALS. The other gets BLS, the unknown medical. That is what we were called for, and it should have been transfered to a hospital for an routine transport vehicle. However, they don't come out at 5am.

We can't refuse to transport someone, we can limit their choices to where they can go.. We're not a taxi service, and we don't do favors. That's what neighbors are for.. They can go to a hospital. That's all. We don't do transports to clinics, nursing homes or the post office. And we don't return patients to their homes. The hospital based ambulance services do all of that. We offered to take her to the nearest ER, and that was it. She got fussy, so we offered to have the state police come assist her. She refused care and transport, and didn't call us again.

But, that didn't change the fact that what she did was abuse of EMS, especially given the time of day and weather. It would have been different if the storm posed a threat to her health and well being, but she had no reason to call, at all.