Ask me about being an EMT.

RPatterson67 · #1 09-21-2007, 03:06 AM

Any questions? Ask away!

jonkeponke · #2 09-21-2007, 03:10 AM

i worked for a healthcare-related temp hiring agency over the summer, and it seemed like a lot of people bitched about how over-worked they are.

my question is how often are ambulance related rides pointless? as in people calling for an ambulance for a bloody nose or something instead of an ACTUAL emergency. and does everyone who uses an ambulance, even for legitimate reasons, have to pay?

RPatterson67 · #3 09-21-2007, 03:16 AM

[ QUOTE ]

my question is how often are ambulance related rides pointless? as in people calling for an ambulance for a bloody nose or something instead of an ACTUAL emergency. and does everyone who uses an ambulance, even for legitimate reasons, have to pay?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know. Don't really have the statistics on that. As for if everyone has to pay, I'd assume it's like any other medical type billing. Insurance, etc. Don't really know. EMT's aren't involved in that end.

kevin017 · #4 09-21-2007, 04:34 AM

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and does everyone who uses an ambulance, even for legitimate reasons, have to pay?

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my dad had to use an ambulance once or twice for legitimate reasons, we got a bill for like ~500-750 for each trip. I forget what it was based on, i think it was level of service needed in the ambulance + some other junk like miles, etc. There was a process for asking for the bill to be reduced, but i think our insurance did ok covering it.

slamdunkpro · #5 09-21-2007, 03:11 PM

[ QUOTE ]
i worked for a healthcare-related temp hiring agency over the summer, and it seemed like a lot of people bitched about how over-worked they are.

my question is how often are ambulance related rides pointless? as in people calling for an ambulance for a bloody nose or something instead of an ACTUAL emergency. and does everyone who uses an ambulance, even for legitimate reasons, have to pay?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm still an EMT-P and I rode as an EMS responder for around 11 years so I'll try to field this.

It really depends on the demographic of the area being serviced by the responder. I was in Fairfax County, VA which is fairly affluent but I did my P rotations in SE DC. I'd say 80% of the calls we had in DC were "taxi calls" - someone needs a ride to the hospital or doctor for a check-up or follow-up, clearly non-emergency type calls: minor cuts scraps that kind of thing; and my favorites; addicts who need to get to the free clinic for their methadone.

In the suburbs, it was more 50/50. The stations I rode out of had I-95 & I-495 as due areas so we ran a lot of auto accidents. 90% of the time we didn't take someone to the hospital. I'd say 50% of the non auto accident calls resulted in legitimately taking someone to the hospital.

As far as billing, I don't know about DC, but Fairfax County doesn't bill for emergency calls with the exception of air lifts.

CalledDownLight · #6 09-21-2007, 03:36 PM

What do you do if someone calls the EMT and the person does not want to be tended to or taken in to the hospital? I'm asking because I witnessed this last week and they took the girl in anyways which seemed a little messed up to me. She consciously said no and they refused to accept that. Is that common practice?

slamdunkpro · #7 09-21-2007, 03:39 PM

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What do you do if someone calls the EMT and the person does not want to be tended to or taken in to the hospital? I'm asking because I witnessed this last week and they took the girl in anyways which seemed a little messed up to me. She consciously said no and they refused to accept that. Is that common practice?

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It's a good way to get sued. Again it varies by jurisdiction but if a patient refuses transport and is capable of signing a refusal of treatment release we had to let them go. The only exception to this is if they are administered certain drugs, (morphine) then they have to be transported.

edfurlong · #8 09-21-2007, 03:11 AM

What percentage of people should have just gotten on the bus and gone to the hospital?

RPatterson67 · #9 09-21-2007, 03:17 AM

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What percentage of people should have just gotten on the bus and gone to the hospital?

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I don't really knokw. You seem to be asking how many are not emergencies? Again I don't have the stats. And it can be tough to gauge if your having a real emergency or not. I mean you can risk looking like a sissy, or risk dying on a bus.

edfurlong · #10 09-21-2007, 03:20 AM

What [censored] stats? Pick a random day, write something about it.