Private transports

[qwerty64]

I did my ride outs with a private company since it worked best with my current work schedule, few questions for the people who do private transports.

1. I was on a BLS non-emergent ambulance. All I did was pulse, resp., and BP. Is this all an EMT-B can really do for this side of the business [versus 911].

2. Have you ever aborted transport and how many times have it happened to you? I did ask this question to my EMT and he said in five years he's never aborted a transport.

3. My EMT also said he made around 30,000 a year. Is this true? I forgot to ask how many hours a week he worked which is a complete brain fart on my part.

 

[JPINFV]

I did my ride outs with a private company since it worked best with my current work schedule, few questions for the people who do private transports.

1. I was on a BLS non-emergent ambulance. All I did was pulse, resp., and BP. Is this all an EMT-B can really do for this side of the business [versus 911].

For non-emergent transports generally yes (albeit I rather enjoyed playing with the RNs and RTs for critical care transports). It's generally basic assessments (V/S, LOC, etc) and monitor preexisting tubes (foley, normal saline IVs from time to time).

While dependent on the area, non-emergent companies also run transports from nursing facilities to the emergency room. These are mixed bag transports that can range from circling the drain to as stable as can be. The really big difference between these and your run of the mill 911 call is that you will be dealing with patients that have multiple and serious chronic conditions. Unfortunately EMT-B training fails to give enough education to appreciate how serious some of these patients are. Beware the "abnormal labs" chief complaints.

On the other hand, 911 isn't exactly all emergency all the time.

2. Have you ever aborted transport and how many times have it happened to you? I did ask this question to my EMT and he said in five years he's never aborted a transport.

Huh? "Aborted" transport? Are you talking about being in the middle of a non-emergent transport and decide to take a patient to the ER?

3. My EMT also said he made around 30,000 a year. Is this true? I forgot to ask how many hours a week he worked which is a complete brain fart on my part.

Highly location specific and service specific.

 

[Jon]

2. Have you ever aborted transport and how many times have it happened to you? I did ask this question to my EMT and he said in five years he's never aborted a transport.

I don't know what you mean... Back when I worked on the BLS side of a Hospital's in house EMS transport program, we routenly got to the floor, only to spend 15 minutes on the phone with dispatch because the Pt. either wasn't ready to go, or needed to go by ALS... then we were often re-directed to another run.

In all my time working transport, I've only re-directed to the ED with 1 patient. On that trip, we arrived at the patient to find him in CHF and complaining of resp. difficulty (he'd missed his meds while at the Dr's office). Pt was at a Dr's clinic in the VA hospital... and was going back to the VA nursing home. Since me and my partner had dropped the patient off that morning, it was obvious that the patient had changed significantly... so we consulted the clinc staff (and got blown off) then consulted dispatch and were told to take the Pt to the hospital's ED. Our reasoning was that the SNF staff would just turf him out.

 

[KEVD18]

working on the transport side of things is just that, transports. its mostly non emergent, usually scheduled and normally nothing more than a very expensive horizontal taxi ride.

if your taking a patient to or from their dialysis treatment(the most common bls transfer call), theres not you need to do. load em, check em out(vs, brief assessment), and write it up. dr office calls are pretty much the same. sometimes, these calls can go sideways on you, so it doesnt pay to become complacent.

depending on your service area and your service, you might be the designated transport company for a nursing home. sometimes, they call a private transfer company instead of 911. sometimes, you'll get dispatched for the difficulty breathing, diaphoresis and tachycardia, but they're "stable at this time". you cant fix stupid...

i also dont know what you mean by "aborting a transfer". do you mean not taking a patient because they arent stable or diverting midway through a routine call and heading for the H? i'll answer both. yes, i have refused inter facility calls due to patient condition. cheap sending facilities will try to get away with sending an als patient bls. your judgement needs to come into play here. if your not comfortable with a patients status and think they will require care outside your level, you shouldnt take the call. this of course refers only to inter facility calls. obviously you cant turf a 911 call. i also wont take a female involuntary psych patient on a double male truck unless im reasonably sure there wont be a problem. 22f on a psych hold for drugs could say anything and it would be your word against hers. 80f being transferred to the er on an involuntary order for tx of ams secondary to a uti is a whole nother matter.

as far as diverting midway through a call to another destination, sure. it happens. dialysis patients crash, a routine appointment can become chest pain or syncope. things happen. thats why you can lose focus on your patient on those boring routine calls.

money: as mentioned, it depends on where you work and who you work for. in ma, even the crappy privates will get you close to that. but the cost of living is higher here.

 

[akflightmedic]

Have you ever aborted transport and how many times have it happened to you?

I do not feel I am the one to make that decision. It is up to each individual ambulance to decide if aborting is the right thing for them.

 

[qwerty64]

Huh? "Aborted" transport? Are you talking about being in the middle of a non-emergent transport and decide to take a patient to the ER?




That's what I mean. Sorry, bad choice of wording B)

 

[katgrl2003]

1. I was on a BLS non-emergent ambulance. All I did was pulse, resp., and BP. Is this all an EMT-B can really do for this side of the business [versus 911].

Heck no! Use these runs to learn how to document correctly. You can learn something with every run, and patients with go south on you. The most common BLS non-emergent run is the dialysis shuffle, and they can crash hard and fast, so be prepared.

2. Have you ever aborted transport and how many times have it happened to you? I did ask this question to my EMT and he said in five years he's never aborted a transport.

Zero in five years?! It's happened to me more times than I can count, and I've been an EMT less than 2. Usually it's a dialysis patient, but every patient has the ability to test your skills.

3. My EMT also said he made around 30,000 a year. Is this true? I forgot to ask how many hours a week he worked which is a complete brain fart on my part.

I made a little less than that last year, but that included working tons of overtime, around 80 hours a week. Its really dependent on where you work, and how much overtime you're willing to put in.

-Kat

 

[qwerty64]

I made a little less than that last year, but that included working tons of overtime, around 80 hours a week. Its really dependent on where you work, and how much overtime you're willing to put in.

-Kat

Yikes, 80 hours a week?! or bi-weekly?

[I hope you mean by-weekly]:sad:

 

[katgrl2003]

Nope, I meant weekly. I averaged 70-80 hours per week, with the most being 200 hours in a 2 week period. I'm one of the workaholics (an actual list people signed up for to be called for overtime), plus I work night shift, always guaranteed overtime. Your pay is going to be based on where you work, experience, cost of living in the area, and how much overtime you are willing to put in.

-Kat

 

[emtwannabe]

and if you are lucky, you can sleep some of those 80+ hour away, too

 

[rmellish]

2. Have you ever aborted transport and how many times have it happened to you? I did ask this question to my EMT and he said in five years he's never aborted a transport.

A couple of weeks ago a floor release patient went into respiratory arrest on their way back to their ECF with family on board, so we diverted to a different ER. It really doesn't happen all that often to me.

 

[mdtaylor]

2. Have you ever aborted transport and how many times have it happened to you? I did ask this question to my EMT and he said in five years he's never aborted a transport.

I've actually aborted transport while enroute to the ED. Although, we continued to the ED and released the pt there once family transportation arrived.

 

[daedalus]

I once was dispatched to a private residence to a man who "fell" and needed to be evaluated by his doctor. Usually my company does not do transport to doctors offices, but this man begged our dispatcher. My partner and I arrived to find a man short of breath with multiple fractured ribs and the entire left side of his chest purple from bruising. Called up his doc, and got a yelling at telling me im a bunch of BS and to bring him to his office and not the hospital. I told the patient I will take him to the ER, or call 911 its his choice. He refused 911 and our dispatch authorised us to transport to the doctor. We we did after stabilizing the chest and placing on 02. The doctor gave the patient a injection of "a painkiller" and ordered us to D/C the 02. The patient got into a fight with the doctor and asked me to bring him to the hospital because he didnt feel comfortable going home. I agreed and transported to the ER.