Taxi um... ambulance driver or Professional

[ERDoc]

I think I'd rather a service medical director be allowed to make policies based on his relationship with myself and my co-workers than having to roll the dice with some resident who doesn't know me on the other end of a phone while he's trying to do 46 other things.

That's not so easy to do when you are the medical director for about 2000 EMTs and 750 paramedics.

[Dustdevil]

For instance I ask how the family member is planning on getting to hospital, they usually say follow behind in the car. Now a perfect opportunity to put foward the idea they don't really need to be transported by ambulance.

I use that as my perfect opportunity to warn the family member that, if they follow my ambulance, they will be stopped by the police before they ever get to the hospital. I don't tolerate that nonsense. Let them know that they need to go ahead of us and get the registration process started, because we are going to be sitting right here for the next twenty minutes inserting various objects into every orifice on the patient's body, as well as creating a few new orifices of our own. Sometimes, at that point, they realise that maybe the car ride is a better idea after all.

[Richard B the EMT]

They want to follow in the car, because how are they going to get our ambulance patient back home from the hospital after using the ED as the family doctor?

On the subject of following the ambulance, I always, for reasons of simple safety, advise them to start out for the hospital "now", as, presuming the patient is stable, I'm going to be stopping at all red lights anyway.

If the patient is not stable, and I would be running "hot" (L&S), when they get to the hospital, they get there, and they risk being in an accident if following an emergency vehicle, as we should have all been taught in EMS Driving School, nobody expects an emergency vehicle to be a part of a convoy, and will pull out immediately after the vehicle with the siren passes them, potentially hitting any following vehicle.

As for the LEOs ticketing someone following an ambulance, from when I started in 1973, even though I know it to be the law, never seen anyone get pulled over.

[Dustdevil]

As for the LEOs ticketing someone following an ambulance, from when I started in 1973, even though I know it to be the law, never seen anyone get pulled over.

It's not a law in Texas, but I've still seen it happen dozens of times. In most places, if you ask the cops to get somebody off of your arse, they make it happen pretty quickly. It's amazing how many of them turn out to have warrants!

[Richard B the EMT]

Hmm, you just reminded me of a call...

At the conclusion of a barricaded person call, even though there was already both an ALS and BLS unit on the scene, as well as the local "Conditions Boss" (Lieutenant), and numerous members of the NYPD, my unit was called in to transport a pregnant woman to an out of area hospital, a part of why she had un-barricaded herself.

The incident had apparently started with an argument with the boyfriend, who had overheard one of my on scene FDNY EMS colleagues request the NYPD respond, via radio, and had gotten verbally abusive. Nobody deemed it nessesary to brief me about that aspect of the call.

With the woman on my streacher, my partner in the back, and me acting as the wheelman, pre-approved for the out of area transport by our OLMC, we were transporting without incident, with the boyfriend following in his POV.

On arrival, my partner advised me, during the half hour ride, that the boyfriend had called from his car, to the patient's cell phone, and asked to speak to my partner.

The main item of what he spoke to my partner about, was, why the expletive deleted are you talking to my girlfriend? Answer: I am doing my job, gotta hang up now to do it.

Partner's retelling hinted at potential violence towards him, patient, and me, not nessesarily in that order, threatened by the boyfriend.

Had he told me of the call during the ride, as the destination hospital was in Nassau County, I would have requested either NYPD or Nassau County PD do a mid route meet-up to stop the boyfriend's car. My partner stayed with the patient as I went to advise the hospital security to keep an eye on the guy, and why. The ED nursing staff, recognizing trouble, directed the boyfriend to the waiting area; as she was being moved to a "patient and staff only" area, he couldn't come with her. True or not, he went to the waiting area.

Wish I could have found out what the conclusion was on that call.

[Dustdevil]

I thought you were commenting on the warrants part of the story.

One day we had a student with us for the shift, and he totally up and disappeared just a couple of hours into the shift. We looked all over the station, in the ambulance. His truck and bags were gone! No warning or anything!

We later found out why. I had called a PD unit to our station on the radio. It was just to have lunch with us (she was hott), but this guy had warrants out and got spooked and bolted, thinking we were ratting him out or something.

[AnthonyM83]

It's not a law in Texas, but I've still seen it happen dozens of times. In most places, if you ask the cops to get somebody off of your arse, they make it happen pretty quickly. It's amazing how many of them turn out to have warrants!

I doubt they'd do that for us here for code 2 runs...