Recent content by RedAirplane

For traumatic cardiac arrest, our protocol says something like this: .. Pronounce death without medical control if no signs of life and asystole .. consult physician for pronouncement of blunt trauma after 15 minutes of unsuccessful working with initial rythym other than asystole .. for...

Not even a phone call? :0

Hello all, I've been offline for a while but now working 911/IFT on top of what I was doing before. I'm trying to wrap my head around the course our patients take once they reach a medical facility. 1. There are some public/charity hospitals that serve needs of the uninsured/underinsured...

From what I understand, EMTALA guarantees that a patient with an emergency medical condition will be evaluated and treated regardless of insurance and ability to pay. The way that this happens is as a condition of participating in Medicare. Does anyone know of any ERs that don't accept...

I did PHTLS over the weekend. It was good for me to see some trauma scenarios and transport decisions since I don't usually do that, but I will be in the future. I struggled a little bit with the thought process of deciding which hospital to go to in some of the scenarios. Can anyone give...

No

I really shouldn't have included the preamble about changing positions and all that because it only is relevant to why I was reading a PHTLS book, not to my actual question. But in essence I live in area A and work in area B as an event EMT. So lots of public service and "first on scene" for...

Sorry all. My original post seems to be a bit unclear or misleading. The situation I gave was from the perspective of me as a patient. Namely, the system that would save me if I were in a crash, not the system I currently or would work for. It was a spot of curiosity given the strange place I...

In a couple months I'll be moving from my current role as a volunteer event medic to a volunteer on a "real" 911 ambulance. One of the biggest things I'm nervous about is trauma -- most people seem to think medical is harder, and perhaps it is at the ALS level, but for me at the BLS level, I...

My experience with 911/ALS providers around here is that at some point during the assessment they will inevitably ask about drug/social history. It makes sense in many circumstances--doesn't cocaine use increase the risk of MI, and can lead one to suspect it in younger patients? (Also, I'm...