visiting patients?

[bled12345]

I was just curious as to whether being a paramedic, on certain calls if your curious about how the patient did or is doing, what kind of access your allowed to them after they're in the hospital?

like for instance say with critical cases, once you get them to the hospital and they're in the hands of a physician, do you always get to find out whether they made it or not? Can you see them say the next day, or talk to them and wish them well? whats the policies for these kinds of things.

 

[HorseHauler]

You can put in a follow up report on the patient if you wish to do so....

 

[firecoins]

Only once did I follow up with a patient. I described the call in another thread. It was a 16 year old car accidnet victim I had while still in my original EMT class when I was 18. I did a shift in the ER as a requirement for the class one week after the car accident and the ER nurse informed me he barely survived.

 

[Jon]

I occasionally find out that someone died days or weeks later... Sometimes the flight services send us follow-up info, sometimes they don't.

 

[mfrjason]

I did a follow-up on a patient once,only cuz she was a friend of mine and wanted to know if she had a boy or a girl. She had a lil girl that day.

 

[KEVD18]

i specifically dont follow up on pts. i feel that becoming attatched in anyway to pts is asking for trouble. we deal with the sick and injured every day. some live, some die. if we start to care beyond competent field care, we run the risk of becoming attached to these people. then when they die, its actually hurts. multiply that by all the pts you treat in a day. week. month. year. career. too much.

i care about my pt's. i really do. but only from my onscene time throught t/p until arrival at the ed. then i transfer care and walk away. as soon as i finish writing the report for that call, i have finished my responsibility, both emotional and occupational, to that pt. and i go home every night with a clear head. if i hear that a pt i treated died, in the abstract i care but i dont let it effect me. i cant.

rule #1: when the shift is over, leave everything behind. politics, pts, everything. dont take your job home with you.

 

[Alexakat]

If our aeromedical service was dispatched & tranported, they will provide a written follow-up report on the patient.

I often wonder how certain patients did, though...particularly the fire victims who've lost their homes (we've had 2 in my 1.5 yrs in in EMS).