Lowest common denominator EMS (was Call An Ambulance, Get a Taxi)

[Guest guest]

**Rant warning!!***

Last night I was posting at one of the sub-hives of The Borg, when I sat

down at the computer to input a few run tickets. Sitting there, in plain

view, was a run ticket completed by a colleague, a paramedic for a full

year now. So I, being a bad drone, broke a HIPAA reg or two by glancing

through it before I placed it face-down on an out-of-the way section of

desk top.

Never have I seen such a disjointed, grammatically atrocious, poorly

spelled attempt at English in my entire life. I'll spare you the pain

of the run narrative, but some jewels from the report were " aspration

namona " in the Chief Complaint block, and " ostoarthitius, " " psycho " and

" sepis " in the block for Past Medical History.

This is a PARAMEDIC, people. He graduated high school, passed an EMT-B

exam, and then an entire paramedic course, and passed the National

Registry exam for paramedics. He's out there, ostensibly providing

medical care (I've seen him in action and he's scary), and HE CAN " T EVEN

SPELL THE LANGUAGE OF HIS PROFESSION.

Now before you say he's an outlier, that semi-literate knuckledraggers

like this are the exception and not the rule in EMS, I beg to differ.

While his writing skills were the worst I've ever seen in a practicing

paramedic, they are not the worst I've ever seen, period. I make it a

point to require essays, term papers, and the like in my EMT and

paramedic courses, simply because I get students with comparable

language skills in my classes all the time. He is NOT a rarity in our

student pool, and probably not a rarity among practicing EMTs. Heck, we

see semi-literate diatribes on this list several times a month.

We do computerized reporting at The Borg. Everything is typed into a

computer program with an integral spell-checker. Actually, we used to

have the option of dictating our run reports, but that is being phased

out because a majority of our drones can't seem to be able to follow a

standardized reporting template. Even giving him the benefit of the

doubt that most of those errors would be caught by the computer

spell-checker, this was still the hand-off report that we GIVE TO THE ER

STAFF. To the doctors and nurses who read it, this is their impression

of paramedics and their capabilities. And if it ever came to court, you

can bet your sweet ass that some enterprising personal injury lawyer is

going to have a field day with his paraglyphics and EMS pidgin.

That's why, whenever I see you guys saying that we can and should triage

patients to taxicabs, or do paramedic-initiated refusals, I double over

in laughter at the thought of it. Because the reality of the situation

is this: for every one of you who poses an articulate, well-reasoned

argument FOR paramedic-initiated refusals or paramedic triage to

taxicabs, there are half a dozen people at your very own services who

" reed an rite reel gud, " just like my fellow Borg drone. Well-educated,

articulate paramedics ARE the exception, not the rule. And for most of

you who ARE capable of making accurate screening decisions and paramedic

initiated refusals, most of you developed that diagnostic acumen DESPITE

your EMS education, not because of it.

And until medics like my fellow Borg drone with the dubba digit

vocabalerry are a rarity rather than being commonplace,

paramedic-initiated refusals and taxi triage is downright ludicrous.

/end rant

spenair wrote:

>

>

> Great idea. Should be policy at all times not just flu season. They

> come do a proper exam. Advise patient what is needed which is not an

> ambulance, if patient still insists, instead of saying no like they

> should, they pay for the patient to get a real taxi ride rather than

> an ambulance transport. Less money lost, as you will not collect from

> insurance of any type as these are not emergency's, and you have your

> units available to go to another call quicker.

>

> Below is part of the news report.

>

> " Paramedics would still respond to 911 calls and examine every

> patient, but would not automatically take everyone to the hospital.

>

> " We'll actually advise them, 'Hey, you don't need to go to the

> hospital. We're not going to take you by ambulance to the hospital,

> because you don't need to be in the emergency room,' " Zavadsky said.

>

> Those who insist on going would still go -- but not in an expensive

> ambulance.

>

> " We'll arrange for transportation for them either by taxi or sedan, "

> he said. " We'll pay for that trip. " "

>

>

> >

> >

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> >

> > Sorry, but I fully disagree with doing this.

> > Ron

> >

> >

>

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-beat/Call-An-Ambulance-Get-a-Taxi-66723887.html

>

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-beat/Call-An-Ambulance-Get-a-Taxi-66723887.htm\

l>

>

> >

> >

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