Just have to complain to people who understand, not that it's even a huge deal. We are 100% volunteer first. Last night 11PM I'm home about to go to sleep but I am on call for duty crew and we get a call for man with flu like symptoms. First responder returns us right away telling us there is no patient. No problem! Let's go home and go back to sleep. 0130 call comes in flu like symptoms, patient requests transport. We get there his girlfriend walks him out and he gets on the stretcher. We load and go and his girlfriend tail gates us the whole way there! WTF? She could have driven him. We take vitals, etc. He's cooperative and somewhat friendy..obviously sick. We get to the hospital (same hospital house was filmed at) and the nurse asks why is he there. He flipped on her screaming he wants to go to a different hospital, he hates her attitude, etc. She tells him to leave..we obviously left. Now I sit at my day job in a daze because someone couldn't have their girlfriend drive them 20 mins to a hospital, although it wasn't even an ER treatable condition!!! End of rant.
A quick rant about last night..
- Thread starter biggee72
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Scout
Para-Noid
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When ye say ye left. Does that mean to say you transported to a different hospital? Or just told him hop off the cot and left him there?
TransportJockey
Forum Chief
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You want to play EMT. No sympathy if it interferes with your real job.
some people just like to abuse the system I am on avolunteer service and I dont mind going to help you if you need it but as a taxi Ihave a real problem. People sometimes think its funny do you guys bill for the services because he wont be laughing when he gets the bill.
JonTullos
Forum Captain
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Part of the gig... I honestly can't give you any sympathy either. I'm a volly FF and had a house fire one night recently... went to bed at 2330, got paged out at 0100, left the scene at 0600, left the station (after taking down wet hoses and putting dry hoses on the truck) at 0700 and had to be at work at 0900. Sorry to be so blunt if you can't handle that you may want to consider if you really want to be in EMS, volly or otherwise.
Yes, abuse of the system is also just part of it... but sometimes it can result in some good stories.
Yes, abuse of the system is also just part of it... but sometimes it can result in some good stories.
TransportJockey
Forum Chief
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People abuse the system everywhere in the country. That's nothing new. And yes, the system I work in they do get billed. Still doesn't stop them from doing stupid :censored::censored::censored::censored: that ties up our busses
medic417
The Truth Provider
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Welcome to EMS. If you volunteer to do this what makes you think you should only get "real" calls, when in real professional EMS we deal with this all the time? Plus are you truly educated enough to know there was not some other physical/mental issue taking place? If you are only trained at a basic level you have no real medical education.
Sorry to be blunt but being a volunteer does not exempt you from all "BS" runs and basic training is not medical education.
Sorry to be blunt but being a volunteer does not exempt you from all "BS" runs and basic training is not medical education.
JPINFV
Gadfly
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Don't like it, don't volunteer. Sorry, not all patients are going to be major traumas or cardiac arrests and professionals don't get to pick and choose their calls.
Holy crap. I'm sorry if I came off wrong. I'm not looking for sympathy and I've been doing this for 8 yrs. However, I've never seen someone take such advantage of the system before ergo my rant. It was a vent to people who I thought would understand the point of the story. Apparently not.
medic417
The Truth Provider
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If this was the worst abuse you have seen you should be thanking the citizens in your area. And again it is possible with only a basic training you may have overlooked a more serious issue.
You are correct, but his girlfriend could have driven him as well. I should also clarify I am new to EMS. I have been a firefighter since 2000 and the abuse of the EMS system came as quite a shock to me. I got my EMT cert mainly to help others including my kids (which I do not have yet), my wife, parents, etc. It's always good to have more knowledge, but I def. didn't go through the training to "play EMT".
el Murpharino
Forum Captain
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It's the nature of the beast. We have many patients that don't realize that as paramedics we are trained professionals capable of doing more than just picking 'em up and dropping 'em off at the hospital with no interventions performed. The public is ill-informed of our capabilities in the field, and many people still think of us as the ambulance drivers from the 1950's. They do think of us as a taxi service that will take them to the hospital and hopefully get them seen by a doctor quicker.
Secondly, regardless of the nature of the call, it's not your emergency. Yes you may think of the call as a bullsh*t sick-guy call because you don't get to play with all the fancy toys we have at our disposal, but that doesn't mean you should skimp on a good patient assessment and treat the patient any less than a patient you deem as legitimitely sick. The worst you will do is perfect your technique and assessment skills, which will in turn make you a better provider.
Lastly, you mention you wanted to help people as an EMT....you did help this guy - get to the hospital safely. Or did you only want to help those YOU deem as needing help?
Secondly, regardless of the nature of the call, it's not your emergency. Yes you may think of the call as a bullsh*t sick-guy call because you don't get to play with all the fancy toys we have at our disposal, but that doesn't mean you should skimp on a good patient assessment and treat the patient any less than a patient you deem as legitimitely sick. The worst you will do is perfect your technique and assessment skills, which will in turn make you a better provider.
Lastly, you mention you wanted to help people as an EMT....you did help this guy - get to the hospital safely. Or did you only want to help those YOU deem as needing help?
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hrmeeks
Forum Crew Member
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come on down to memphis and we will show you what it looks like 1st hand stubbed toes on ambulances while people drive dead bodies in
Considering how you described the girlfriend's driving, I don't think I would have wanted her driving him 20 minutes to the hospital. She probably would have been too distracted with him in the car but then that could have led to an exciting trauma. She at least had your bumper to concentrate on to get her to the hospital.
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hrmeeks
Forum Crew Member
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you assume he will pay the bill
hrmeeks
Forum Crew Member
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i dont think they like to abuse the system as much as it is a lack of education
gotta hand it to ya vollies though, dont get me wrong i love my job but I dont think i could do it for free
8jimi8
CFRN
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i just gotta ask. WHY IS EVERYONE SO SALTY ON THIS FORUM?!
Bro, sorry you got paged out for a taxi ride. Glad you got if off your chest!
**Keep on volunteering**
I drove 1.5 hours away from my house for 4, 12 hours shifts WHERE NOT A SINGLE TONE DROPPED. Well we did get toned out ONCE, but unfortunately I was on the rig that went to get breakfast tacos, so the other crew rolled out on the call!
I was the biggest freaking white cloud there is!
I broke the seal on my 5th shift (after i finally realized that If i have to commute for 3 hours to volunteer in a 911 service, i'm not going to do a 12. i'm gonna do a 24!) ...we rolled out on 4 calls including a 1 vehicle rollover with 2 unrestrained passengers, one being the ejected child. This kid's dad was rushing to Sonic for the "free rootbeer floats" trying to get there before midnight when the deal ended. Took his corner too sharp and rolled it. Of course, they lied to us and said that they were both wearing seatbelts. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the kid had dirt in his mouth, or why he was lying on the ground behind the overturned SUV (he said he got out of the car and realized his neck hurt, so he layed down). It wasn't until after we went back to the ER for the final call that night that i spoke with his nurse and was informed that they changed their stories and fessed up to being unrestrained. Since then, I usually get at least 1 call in a 24 hour period and i don't care how AWESOME the call is, i'm just glad to be able to get some experience and help people. I've had such awesome experiences volunteering and have yet to go out on a taxi call.
to the rest of the forum, jeeze guys, its always said that nurses eat their young. Why bag on the guy for a little rant?! He made a disclaimer that it was just a rant. Guess y'all taught him a lesson!
Freakin internet courage! its worse than liquid courage, at least when someone's drunk and talking **** to you, you can smack him in the mouth. Over the internet people just take potshots left and right with no come-uppance. Would you really treat a volunteer basic like that face to face?
I mean would you really scare off all your volunteer coverage like that? If you hate it too, why blast him cause he got his first bad taste in his mouth, why not buy him a beer?!
Bro, sorry you got paged out for a taxi ride. Glad you got if off your chest!
**Keep on volunteering**
I drove 1.5 hours away from my house for 4, 12 hours shifts WHERE NOT A SINGLE TONE DROPPED. Well we did get toned out ONCE, but unfortunately I was on the rig that went to get breakfast tacos, so the other crew rolled out on the call!
I was the biggest freaking white cloud there is!
I broke the seal on my 5th shift (after i finally realized that If i have to commute for 3 hours to volunteer in a 911 service, i'm not going to do a 12. i'm gonna do a 24!) ...we rolled out on 4 calls including a 1 vehicle rollover with 2 unrestrained passengers, one being the ejected child. This kid's dad was rushing to Sonic for the "free rootbeer floats" trying to get there before midnight when the deal ended. Took his corner too sharp and rolled it. Of course, they lied to us and said that they were both wearing seatbelts. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the kid had dirt in his mouth, or why he was lying on the ground behind the overturned SUV (he said he got out of the car and realized his neck hurt, so he layed down). It wasn't until after we went back to the ER for the final call that night that i spoke with his nurse and was informed that they changed their stories and fessed up to being unrestrained. Since then, I usually get at least 1 call in a 24 hour period and i don't care how AWESOME the call is, i'm just glad to be able to get some experience and help people. I've had such awesome experiences volunteering and have yet to go out on a taxi call.
to the rest of the forum, jeeze guys, its always said that nurses eat their young. Why bag on the guy for a little rant?! He made a disclaimer that it was just a rant. Guess y'all taught him a lesson!
Freakin internet courage! its worse than liquid courage, at least when someone's drunk and talking **** to you, you can smack him in the mouth. Over the internet people just take potshots left and right with no come-uppance. Would you really treat a volunteer basic like that face to face?
I mean would you really scare off all your volunteer coverage like that? If you hate it too, why blast him cause he got his first bad taste in his mouth, why not buy him a beer?!
SanDiegoEmt7
Forum Captain
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amen .
Sasha
Forum Chief
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Buy him a beer because he's complaining about his patient and ranting about the call?
Sorry sweetheart, patients like these are part of the job. If he doesn't like it, then perhaps he SHOULDN'T volunteer. When you are annoyed or fed up with a patient or a call, it shows and makes it uncomfortable for all. Just because someone volunteers doesn't mean they are wonderful.
And by the way, telling everyone how horrible and mean they are is just as bad as people "bagging on him". Pot, meet kettle.
Hey you know let me say something those who volunteer are not always just basics and yes as basics were not allowed to do medications except assist with things but when you have been doing it for a ton of years you pick up things also that upper levels have. Yes as volunteers we get crap calls and my husband who is a full time paramedic also volunteers is the chief of our service and were a basic level service we see all kinds of stuff and you folks who do it full time also get crap calls of taxi service 101.
I think you do get frustrated after a while be real about abuse of the system paid service or volunteer you get tired of it after a while but its going to happen no matter what so I guess we just all have to deal with it.
I like the fact that our vol. service bills so they can get a huge bill at the end of it so it makes me feel better about the whole thing.
And remember folks were here to help people in the long run thats why we became emt's and up
I think you do get frustrated after a while be real about abuse of the system paid service or volunteer you get tired of it after a while but its going to happen no matter what so I guess we just all have to deal with it.
I like the fact that our vol. service bills so they can get a huge bill at the end of it so it makes me feel better about the whole thing.
And remember folks were here to help people in the long run thats why we became emt's and up