concerns about driving

[Richard B the EMT]

Just an observation:

Every time I see a brand new service (non 9-1-1 provider) on the streets of my area, they always seem to be travelling at full emergency status, meaning L&S, and at breakneck speeds. Also, they seem to have teams (2 person crews) of fresh out of the box EMTs.

At the various EDs, I ask what type of call they were on. Most times, due to my experiences, they meet no rapid transit criteria I am aware of, but the seemingly universal answer given is, "We are being paid to get to them fast, and get them to the ED fast."

I also note, with almost predictable regularity, within 6 months to a year, some team and vehicle of the new-jack service will be involved in a major ambulance-involved collision, or worse, a pedestrian struck incident, usually with a death.

Also, due to press coverage, all ambulance services get a lot of grief at the hands of the press, and thru them, the public. "You work an ambulance? You're a potential vehicular homicide waiting to happen. I don't care that you work for their competitor, you're all the same!"

There's at least 3 new services working in my neighborhood, and I am hoping I will not see my prediction happen yet again.

[fireflymedic]

If you don't want to drive, definitely go to medic class, otherwise you will be stuck on a BLS truck tater toting all day long which sucks. I prefer not to drive, and do so only on non emergency transfers, for emergencies, my partner always drives. It's a good mix 'cause he loves to drive and I'm not that comfortable with it. I've been in the field 8 years almost, but I still don't care for it, though I will drive if neccessary. Just a preference I guess.

[Just Plain Ruff]

for those with response performance guidelines or RULES of 8:59 to a life threatening call. Let me tell a little story

I was working one day and we were at the ER of a local hospital at point A

We got toned out for a chest pain call at Point B which was if you take a square and put point A in the bottom right hand corner of the square and you put point B at the upper left hand corner of that square you get an idea of how far we had to drive.

I pride my self in having partners who follow the rules for the response time guidelines but at times we broke the rules for specific calls. We responded on a early evening after being written up for not adhering to the specific response times which we had what they call Exception reports for 3 calls that day. We were only 10 seconds, 40 seconds and 3 minutes late on three calls all day. We got there safe is all I had to say to them but they didn't want to hear it. They were completely focused on the response time requirements and to hell with the safety of the crew. So I always told the drivers - get me there safe, take the time you need to get there safe and let me deal with the suits. Most of the times we made it there in time. Other times it was due to having 1 or two ambulances in a town of 300 square miles to cover the entire area. Rush hour traffic and traffic snarls included.

I'd rather get to a patient in 10 minutes than get in a wreck or worse and not get there at all. I've been in more accidents than I can care to remember and most were while working at this one service. I think before I quit I was involved in 4 or 5

We travelled the distance in 9:03 seconds or something like that which should have taken 12 minutes or so. Much longer if it would have happened during the daylight hours.

WE go in the house and find a patient having a full blown MI and we start to treat the patient. Then the fire captain came in and grabbed 2 of his fire fighters and they rushed out the door. Little did I know at the time but we had driven to the scene and our brakes were smoking and bright red and nearly to the point of catching on fire. The fire guys pulled the hose and waited for the inevitable which thankfully didn't happen.

So now our ambulance is out of service, they had to call mutual aid for a truck from a neighboring city to come transport the patient.

We got the 2nd and third write up of the day, one for not adhering to the time limits and the other for damaging the ambulance. My partner and I refused to sign the write ups and we both were suspended for three days.

So if you have performance restrictions on response times and they penalize you for not making it to the scene of a call which would have taken 10 or 12 minutes to get there lights and sirens but you have to make it there in less than 9 minutes then your service is definately broke.

It was no wonder that there was at least 1 wreck or damaged ambulance at this service about every month or so. (at least when I worked there)

[Just Plain Ruff]

I'd work for minimum wage as an emt if my other job was making me enough to live.

I'd work for minimum wage now as a medic but I would be able to do that due to what I make in my other job.

[kyle308]

I'd work for minimum wage as an emt if my other job was making me enough to live.

I'd work for minimum wage now as a medic but I would be able to do that due to what I make in my other job.

lol not to be harsh....but what has this got to do wit the topic lol

btw....thanks everyone for all the responses

[whit72]

I would agree with Ruff. Services that have response time limits are definitly asking for trouble. Out of chute times work better and dont put the public at risk.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Well Kyle, I made a mistake post, should have been in a different thread. It should have been in the minimum wage thread. Thanks for pointing out my terrible error.

Not to be harsh LOL, but have you never made a mistake?

[ladyemt51_2000]

Kyle,

I was just like you when I was 16, a fresh new driver and didn't know my directions very well, let alone how to handle anything more powerful than my mom's Granada (ok, don't laugh:P).

The first time I drove an ambulance was with a very calm Paramedic who took the time to explain to me the logistics of the ambulance and how to drive it. He took TIME with me and didn't make me feel like foolish. I hope you are able to be as fortunate as I was in finding someone who wanted to invest the effort I needed to learn.

The directions come in time. Pay attention to where you are and where you need to be. I was lousy at directions and I do pretty well now (thanks to google maps:))

On the other hand, I won't go into the night I was taught how to drive a firetruck backward when I hadn't even learned how to drive it forward yet. My LT was walking right beside the driver side window screaming at me all the way in front of the rest of the dept (who were all men) and it was then I decided that if I could handle that little humiliation, I could handle anything.

Best of luck to you. I think you have alot to be proud of this early in the game!

[kyle308]

Well Kyle, I made a mistake post, should have been in a different thread. It should have been in the minimum wage thread. Thanks for pointing out my terrible error.

Not to be harsh LOL, but have you never made a mistake?

lol...I'm sorry...it was ahuge one...I had to point it out....and I make mistakes all the time.

[Just Plain Ruff]

thanks Kyle(tongue in cheek). but it's all good.