Rules against calling 911 when it isn't an emergency?

[WendyT]

When is a true emergency, a true emergency.

The man who is drunk falls down and just lays there, so someone calls 911, who comes, both the guys in ems and the police. The police take the drunk, and you guys dont get paid for that call.

Someone fainted, but their fine now, it's not a true emergency,but you got called for it, it's not a call you can work, a true chest thumping, adrenalin raging feeling you get when you get there.

If someone sprained their ankle or broke it and they are miles from home and or vehicle, should they be calling an ambulance?

See I would like to know this, so when a true actually emergency arises and not some small pity, that I dont make a fool out of myself for just calling.

Do you get what I am saying, do you understand, if you dont PM me please so we can set the record straight.

[flight-lp]

The bigger situation is the burning out of the volly's.

Get rid of them and then the problem is solved.

+5 =D> =D> =D>

replace 'em with people who will work for their dollar and actually hold value to their job. It is quite apparant that these bozo's do not.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Wendy I'm not sure I got your drift but maybe I did

If I'm called to a emergency scene who am I to judge if it's an emergency or not.

It's not your job to pass judgement on what is or what is not an emergency.

It's your JOB to take care of the patient who stubbed their toe just as it is YOUR JOB to take care of the cardiac arrest.

Just because it does not fall under "OUR" definition of an emergency does not mean it is not an emergency to them.

People, until there are no ambulances on the streets and we can all trasport to sickbay like in star trek we have to do what we are getting paid (or not paid(volly)) to do and that is to respond to a patient in need, take care of them and then go get another patient.

If you complain about doing the calls at 3am in the morning that's part of the job. If you don't like it then get out of EMS. I want someone who wants to work.

You can bitch and moan about those early morning calls all you want but don't ever let the patient hear your displeasure.

If you are on the ambulance with me and the patient hears you bitching cause they woke you up I can tell you I'm gonna be pissed and not want you as a partner.

[dahlio]

Why are we complaining? The so called "non-emergency" calls are what make the real emergencies even better. Plus, it's good job security .

[Richard B the EMT]

I will now mention 2 system abusers, no longer a problem to the NYC 9-1-1 system.

Person 1 lived a block from the hospital, and whenever he had a fight with his wife, which seemed to be every hour, on the half hour. He called himself in as "Neck and Throat Pain". He had a pacemaker implanted, but refused to refer to himself as a cardiac patient. We, however, did, which is why he always got an ambulance. BLS usually was closer, and would cancel out the ALS response.

(This was before FDNY started the CFR-D program, as they would have been dispatched to the call, because of the cardiac priority)

One time, a rowdy BLS crew, upset that he had been transported 3 times already that 8 hour tour, put his telephone into the guy's refrigerator. They should not have done this, as it could have resulted in a civilian complaint against them. Not this patient, he charged at them with a steak knife in one hand, and a ballpeen hammer in the other!

All crews responding to his apartment building after that had to confirm if it was his apartment or not, so we could stop the NYPD from assigning an Emergency Services Unit (used for rescue and SWAT applications) to the call.

This continued until he died in surgery replacing the pacemaker.

The other one was not the fault of the people at the address we, fire, and the cops kept getting sent to. During the course of a year, some nut job with an unknown agenda against the residents in that home in Brooklyn, called 9-1-1 something over 3,000 times. Let me spell it out, that was three thousand times! The guy blathered on, on the phone, about dead babies buried in the basement, buried by the "Dapper Don", John Gotti, himself. (FBI and NYPD surveillance confirmed the now late Mafia Family head had absolutely no connection with the story)

The nut called so often, he actually called in again, even before the EMS, FDNY and NYPD reached their vehicles after reporting it in as an unfounded call over their radios, a few times. The NYPD computers were actually programed to prompt the Public Safety Answering Point operators to ask for a code word given to the family, to be used if they actually called 9-1-1 for themselves.

NYPD and the telephone company finally traced the abusive caller, who is, 10 years later, now still being held, indefinitely, at the Kings County Hospital Center's "G" Building, a well known psychiactric facility in Brooklyn.

[itku2er]

These people who wrote this article must not have know any of the volunteers I work with...

to them everything is an emergency

but yes, I think there should be some kind of penalty, or mandatory class or something if you call 911 for very obvious BULLS**T (such as abdominal pain to the dispatcher then lint in the bellybutton onscene or bleeding from the mouth wile on the phone and then having chapped lips onscene)

it is very frustrating to get woke up in the middle offer the night for that kind of stuff

Well this all well and good I work both sides of the fence here EMS and Nursing and sometimes in the Nursing Home setting because of the way the system is set up you have to call 911 for the abdominal pain and the stupid bullsh**. Which isnt really classified as an emergency but that is the only way to get them to the hospital and get treatment. Its easy to judge the callers but like you said To them it is a emergency, its all in the precpetion of how they precieve the situtation. But its our job as EMS workers to go pick them up and take them to the hospital. If you dont like this job then find something else reguardless of the nature of the call that is just the plain and simple fact 911 pages you go no need to bitch moan or groan that is the job you chose to do so do it!

Terr

[Yummymedic05]

I got into EMS so I could help people. Not play with lights and sirens. Everyone has their own definition of an emergency, and it's my job to triage it and help as seen fit. Don't get me wrong, when it's 10 minutes before the end of my shift, and the other shift isn't there yet, and I get a call (regardless of BS or not) I get pissy.

[cotjockey]

I'll admit that I have complained a time or two when we go to the same house for the same minor complaint five out of seven days...but hey...that's part of the package. Every job has customers or clients or whatever you want to call them that no one likes to deal with. Besides...the non-emergent patients give newbies some good assessment skills without the urgency of having to find and correct things emergently. They get a lot of practice assessing healthy patients, so they are more comfortable saying that something isn't normal. It's part of the job...plain and simple. If people are so burned out that they are complaining about the BS calls, maybe it is time to find somewhere else to volunteer their time.

[spenac]

K, so I get why we all get p o'd when we are sent on a call to put a bandaid on grandma's arm or get a cat out of a tree. However, we have to keep in mind that although it may not be an emergency at all to us, it is to those calling 911. I get aggrevated especially with the frequent flyer's BUT it's just part of the job we have to deal with!

In my area a large percentage of patients will tell you it's not an emergency. People in this area have been convinced that medicaid is coverage for the free taxi with the bright lights and sirens. I'm all for jail time for these idiots. I have no problem going to anybody that calls unsure if what they have is an emergency. Where I have a problem is someone demanding to be taken 90 miles to the hospital for a stubbed toe. I will not take them. If I get there and after exam see there is nothing we can do to benefit them enroute to the hospital we first explain that the ambulance is not needed and the costs etc. If they still demand it we deny them. I guess if we had a jail law say sure get on board, then haul there butts to jail. But again if you think it's an emergency call 911. I will rush over, but please be understanding when we explain no it's not a real emergency.

As far as small volume, perhaps they are far from the hospital. My 2 transports per day at primary where we are 90 miles to hospital are much tougher than the 12 per day at my part time job where I'm very seldom more than 15 miles from the hospital. So #'s are not the all telling aspect. But biggest problem is service should not be volunteer.

[FredG]

This is a bad idea. As the articles states "Chadron City Attorney Adam Edmond says false reporting is covered by state law".

If it is obvious that a person called 911 frivolously, then they should be brought up on charges under exisiting state law. There is no justification, regardless of whether a locality uses a volunteer or paid service, to pass any laws that may make a civilian not call 911. I would prefer getting up at 3 AM to a non-critical call because someone erred on the side of caution rather than hearing in the news about someone dying at home because they were afraid to call 911.

If those volunteers are complaining, then maybe they should look at themselves and decide whether they, as individuals, should be in EMS (or any other emergency service) at all.