First let me give you some backround on what I'm talking about...
Where our dept lies is right on the county line. We are dispatched from the county that most of our station sits on basically. We frequently get requests to assist our neighboring Ambulance in the other county. Our county has many ALS trucks whereas the other county has 1 truck with anywhere from 1 medic to 3 (we don't know how many there are at any given time).
For this particular call, the single medic truck from the other county was already on a call. Typically dispatch will pull an ALS truck from our county when this occurs.
The dispatch was was for a 26 YOF, diabetic emergency, patient conscious and alert at this time with the location being in the other county. That dispatch to me warrants the medics to respond, even though a conscious and alert diabetic emergency is quite manageable at a BLS level. Keep in mind that the other county's medic is already out on a call so they aren't coming. We are right at the station and respond in emergent mode. We arrive within 5 mins or so to find the pt fully conscious, alert, oriented, just complaining of an upset stomach, which is why she hadn't eaten anything that day (we were dispatched around 1400 hrs) hence the decline in her BGL. Pt does want to go to the hospital to get checked and it's approx 10 mins away, emergent. We put the pt on the stair-chair for ease of extrication from residence. We get the patient in the truck and start heading for the hospital the patient wants to go to. At this time, we are going in emergent due to no medic being available by the sounds of it. We were never notified that an ALS truck was dispatched to assist us. We're going and then all of the sudden a medic truck that was at least an additional 20 mins away from the scene, let alone our current location (about 5 mins from the hospital) calls us and asks for our location. I tell them were about 5 mins out from the ER and we're just going to continue in BLS, thanks anyway. I call the report to the hospital and they absolutely FLIP because there isn't a medic with this pt. I explained my actions and that didn't seem to cut it with the RN. Anyway, she takes my report and we arrived in 3 mins or so. Patient during all this time is fine, she's taking some oral glucose a little bit at a time and is felling a little better. All vitals are stable. We arrive and take the pt in, the RN still seems PO'd over not having a medic, but she eventually calms down.
My question is... Was our decision to continue in a correct one? I feel it was, due to the circumstances. Is it really worth waiting at least 20 mins for an ALS truck and the possibility of the pt going down the toilet? I don't think so in my opinion. The big difference is in the other county, they wait ALL THE TIME for ALS. We don't, hardly ever, we usually meet them enroute to the hospital. After all, the patient doesn't get better sitting at their house and waiting for the medic.
Where our dept lies is right on the county line. We are dispatched from the county that most of our station sits on basically. We frequently get requests to assist our neighboring Ambulance in the other county. Our county has many ALS trucks whereas the other county has 1 truck with anywhere from 1 medic to 3 (we don't know how many there are at any given time).
For this particular call, the single medic truck from the other county was already on a call. Typically dispatch will pull an ALS truck from our county when this occurs.
The dispatch was was for a 26 YOF, diabetic emergency, patient conscious and alert at this time with the location being in the other county. That dispatch to me warrants the medics to respond, even though a conscious and alert diabetic emergency is quite manageable at a BLS level. Keep in mind that the other county's medic is already out on a call so they aren't coming. We are right at the station and respond in emergent mode. We arrive within 5 mins or so to find the pt fully conscious, alert, oriented, just complaining of an upset stomach, which is why she hadn't eaten anything that day (we were dispatched around 1400 hrs) hence the decline in her BGL. Pt does want to go to the hospital to get checked and it's approx 10 mins away, emergent. We put the pt on the stair-chair for ease of extrication from residence. We get the patient in the truck and start heading for the hospital the patient wants to go to. At this time, we are going in emergent due to no medic being available by the sounds of it. We were never notified that an ALS truck was dispatched to assist us. We're going and then all of the sudden a medic truck that was at least an additional 20 mins away from the scene, let alone our current location (about 5 mins from the hospital) calls us and asks for our location. I tell them were about 5 mins out from the ER and we're just going to continue in BLS, thanks anyway. I call the report to the hospital and they absolutely FLIP because there isn't a medic with this pt. I explained my actions and that didn't seem to cut it with the RN. Anyway, she takes my report and we arrived in 3 mins or so. Patient during all this time is fine, she's taking some oral glucose a little bit at a time and is felling a little better. All vitals are stable. We arrive and take the pt in, the RN still seems PO'd over not having a medic, but she eventually calms down.
My question is... Was our decision to continue in a correct one? I feel it was, due to the circumstances. Is it really worth waiting at least 20 mins for an ALS truck and the possibility of the pt going down the toilet? I don't think so in my opinion. The big difference is in the other county, they wait ALL THE TIME for ALS. We don't, hardly ever, we usually meet them enroute to the hospital. After all, the patient doesn't get better sitting at their house and waiting for the medic.