# The most stupid calls taken as a dispatcher.



## eynonqrs (Aug 15, 2010)

Any dispatchers please chime in. I work as a dispatcher for a private service, we do 911, transports and private lines. Here are some that frost my flakes.

1) I took a private line emergency from a personal care home for a pt with a nose bleed and shortness of breath. I asked the person that called what was the pt's resp rate, and they said 92 times a minute. I took a double take and said, are you sure? , and the caller said yes. I said thank you and hung up the phone. I am thinking to myself, are you kidding me ? 

2) The nursing homes that call for a pt with altered mental status that they are on the altered ward, when I ask when did this start and they say " the pt is more altered than usual "


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## LucidResq (Aug 15, 2010)

eynonqrs said:


> 2) The nursing homes that call for a pt with altered mental status that they are on the altered ward, when I ask when did this start and they say " the pt is more altered than usual "



This one is totally fair in my opinion... a person with Alzheimer's, for example, can have a stroke causing them to be "more altered than usual." I'm a newb and I'm definitely not going to go in to specifics but one of my favorites so far was someone seeking marriage advice.


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## JPINFV (Aug 15, 2010)

eynonqrs said:


> Any dispatchers please chime in. I work as a dispatcher for a private service, we do 911, transports and private lines. Here are some that frost my flakes.
> 
> 1) I took a private line emergency from a personal care home for a pt with a nose bleed and shortness of breath. I asked the person that called what was the pt's resp rate, and they said 92 times a minute. I took a double take and said, are you sure? , and the caller said yes. I said thank you and hung up the phone. I am thinking to myself, are you kidding me ?


So you're asking someone who may or may not be a health care provider (i.e. group homes/board and cares) to take a vital sign? There's a reason why AHA removed pulse checks from lay provider CPR. 



> 2) The nursing homes that call for a pt with altered mental status that they are on the altered ward, when I ask when did this start and they say " the pt is more altered than usual "


Are all patients altered from normal standards the same level of altered?


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## Melclin (Aug 16, 2010)

*No quite what you're after.*

I've heard of a 15 year old girl calling 000 for a "broken heart". Apparently, what with the strictness of AMPDS it got put through as chest pain - altered conscious, or something similar and it got a lights and sirens response from an ALS truck and an Intensive Care truck. I wonder if the presence of four bemused paramedics helped her with her relationship difficulties.


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## Scout (Aug 16, 2010)

eynonqrs said:


> 1)what was the pt's resp rate, and they said 92 times a minute.
> 
> 2)" the pt is more altered than usual "




Both seem kind of fair to me, I have seen resps up near that mark, and if they are well into a panic attach it could be that high...


Altered is a relative term. Could be argued most of use could pass for altered Mental most of the time?


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## LucidResq (Aug 16, 2010)

Melclin said:


> I've heard of a 15 year old girl calling 000 for a "broken heart". Apparently, what with the strictness of AMPDS it got put through as chest pain - altered conscious, or something similar and it got a lights and sirens response from an ALS truck and an Intensive Care truck. I wonder if the presence of four bemused paramedics helped her with her relationship difficulties.



Wow... that's pretty sad. I'm sure with EMD and our SOGs I'd have enough latitude to put that call in as psych. All of our EMS calls actually go in as the same type code.... EMS (minus shootings, stabbings, MVAs and rescues) but that call would at least be dispatched over the radio as a psych... and no mention of chest pain unless she actually says she's experiencing it.


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## Melclin (Aug 16, 2010)

LucidResq said:


> Wow... that's pretty sad. I'm sure with EMD and our SOGs I'd have enough latitude to put that call in as psych. All of our EMS calls actually go in as the same type code.... EMS (minus shootings, stabbings, MVAs and rescues) but that call would at least be dispatched over the radio as a psych... and no mention of chest pain unless she actually says she's experiencing it.



I wouldn't read to much into it. Its just a rumour. I'm sure any semblance of truth except for the basic gist of 'large response for broken heart', has long since be lost in the story telling. AMPDS is not as strict as I made it sound, and you can have additional information added to the job code. Realistically it was probably some combination of poor communication and over zealous ultra-risk adverse thinking on the part of that particular EMD...but who knows, its just a funny story.


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## SeanC898 (Sep 7, 2010)

My personal Faves are, on 911;

When Am I getting power back?
What Time do the fireworks start?
Is I-95 Open?
How do I get to Orlando FL, From CT With a Trailer?
Is this 911?
Is this the Highschool Secretary? (Our Highschool prefix is 914, although requiring an area code fixed this problem) 
Barking Dog Complaints.
I want to report an accident that happend last week...

The list goes on and on...


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## Lifeguards For Life (Sep 7, 2010)

eynonqrs said:


> Any dispatchers please chime in. I work as a dispatcher for a private service, we do 911, transports and private lines. Here are some that frost my flakes.
> 
> 1) I took a private line emergency from a personal care home for a pt with a nose bleed and shortness of breath. I asked the person that called what was the pt's resp rate, and they said 92 times a minute. I took a double take and said, are you sure? , and the caller said yes. I said thank you and hung up the phone. I am thinking to myself, are you kidding me ?
> 
> 2) The nursing homes that call for a pt with altered mental status that they are on the altered ward, when I ask when did this start and they say " the pt is more altered than usual "



way to go. remedial dispatch training? or get some field experience........

I vote this as one of the most stupid threads I have read at EMTLIFE


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## CAOX3 (Sep 10, 2010)

Scout said:


> Both seem kind of fair to me, I have seen resps up near that mark, and if they are well into a panic attach it could be that high...
> 
> 
> Altered is a relative term. Could be argued most of use could pass for altered Mental most of the time?



You have witnessed a respiratory rate in the 90's?   Ummm..How long did that last?


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## Aidey (Sep 10, 2010)

I've seen people hyperventilate themselves out, and their resps were in the 50s. I don't know that it is humanly possible to breathe in the 90s.


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## CAOX3 (Sep 10, 2010)

Aidey said:


> I've seen people hyperventilate themselves out, and their resps were in the 50s. I don't know that it is humanly possible to breathe in the 90s.



Yeah I agree.

Thats about as high as I have witnessed, they're working hard at fifty and they usually quit on you soon after.


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## exodus (Sep 10, 2010)

I'm amazed nobody is noting the fact he hung up on them...


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## spike91 (Sep 10, 2010)

I'll share one that a friend told me of yesterday, he's a dispatcher locally. They received a 911 call where a man shaving his head with a dull razor lacerated his head. A unit was dispatched, and upon arriving on scene, they requested a landline. The unit asked the dispatcher what the dispatch info was again, he repeated. They then say "Well we've got a guy here with a full head of hair saying he wants US to shave his head, because all he has is a dull razor."


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## MrBrown (Sep 10, 2010)

MPDS in the right (read experienced and medically trained) hands is a very good tool.

Ambulance, what is the exact address of the emergency?


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## LucidResq (Sep 10, 2010)

MrBrown said:


> MPDS in the right (read experienced and medically trained) hands is a very good tool.
> 
> Ambulance, what is the exact address of the emergency?



Hah, the problem is sometimes medical training is a disadvantage. We have very set in stone protocols from a Medical Director. It can be tricky to say/ask things that are stupid and not to say/ask certain things when you have more knowledge than most using the protocols.


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## MrBrown (Sep 11, 2010)

The MPDS logic is often fairly accurate and if the information being fed into the system was infact correct then it would work well.  The problem is, the information is often so inaccurate its not funny.

For example two of the four key questions are is the patient "competely awake" and "breathing normally".  These are open to large degrees of confusion and speculation by lay persons who do not understand what "competely awake" and "normal breathing" in an acute medical sense are so results in the mass over priorisitation to C, D or E detriments and the resulting large number of jobs which are sent out priority 1 or with Intensive Care backup that are not required.

Another example is Protocol 19 (Heart problem/AICD) which lists a bunch of sub detriments about heart rate when we know that heart rate is not clinically significant unless the patient is poorly perfused so sitting there asking the caller to count the heart rate is a bit silly.

Then there are the times when applying a little clinical subjectivity would go a long way and downgrade the calls to A or B from C, D or E detriments i.e. they say the patient is not completely awake or breathing normally or is having some problem and you can hear them in the background awake and talking or saying no no my leg hurts not my chest.

I think Jeff Clawson was onto a good thing but its just in need of some refinment.


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## abckidsmom (Sep 11, 2010)

MrBrown said:


> The MPDS logic is often fairly accurate and if the information being fed into the system was infact correct then it would work well.  The problem is, the information is often so inaccurate its not funny.
> 
> For example two of the four key questions are is the patient "competely awake" and "breathing normally".  These are open to large degrees of confusion and speculation by lay persons who do not understand what "competely awake" and "normal breathing" in an acute medical sense are so results in the mass over priorisitation to C, D or E detriments and the resulting large number of jobs which are sent out priority 1 or with Intensive Care backup that are not required.
> 
> ...



I really like how smoothly it runs when you're running down the questions.  

In our system, we could ask whatever we wanted during the PAIs, and sometimes got better info for the crews.

I think that it would work better if we could count on society as a whole having an average IQ of at least 100, and being able to use it under stress.  I never. ever. found a caller who could count the heart rate properly.  Many just refused to do it, saying that the crew could do it when they got there.  But we had some really intellectually challenged callers.  

"Emergency Medical, Where do you need the ambulance?"


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## MrBrown (Sep 11, 2010)

I don't expect people to have IQs of 100 and a pertinent medically acceptable history when calling for an ambo.  There are parts of MPDS I like and parts I find fault with - especially around the "completely awake" and "breathing normally" questions which should (used) to be "conscious" and "difficulty breathing" but they were taken out because apparently required too much diagnosis by the caller.

Maybe we should just send HEMS to everything and have a Doctor look at them?


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## abckidsmom (Sep 11, 2010)

MrBrown said:


> Maybe we should just send HEMS to everything and have a Doctor look at them?



Definitely.


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## eynonqrs (Oct 12, 2010)

*He is another good one.*

One night I get a private line call from a facility. I asked what was wrong with the pt, and the called said: "The pt want's a vol. committal, she want's to leave right now." I dispatched the crew and adivesd them. The crew stated, "If I was in that place, I would want to leave, too." I said, "me too, me too." You would have to be there. You can't tell the staff from the residences. This facility would make any other look like a resort area.


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## johnrsemt (Oct 12, 2010)

I received a call for a scout with difficulty breathing:  from his scout leader who refused to stay with him,  at the National Boy Scout Jamboree,  with 45,000 other scouts.     crews in field never found him.  
  Leader called back 12 hours later mad, because we didn't take him to hospital.  after scout walked into camp;   after he walked by at least 20 medical sub stations, and 10 ambulances.  scout didn't want to be checked out,  and wasn't wheezing anymore (surprising what inhalor will do for someone).       Leader made him go get checked out.   all the way to an off site hospital.


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## DrParasite (Oct 12, 2010)

hmmm, received a call for a baby who wouldn't stop crying, hairdye that was burning a girl's hair, an EDP who said he was in his house, but not in HIS house, and the lady who was knocked out by a moose.


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## Aidey (Oct 12, 2010)

A lady knocked out by a moose in New Jersey!?


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## DrParasite (Oct 12, 2010)

oh, and this isn't in the sticks, this happened in one of the most urban cities in NJ, well knowing for being part of part of the knife and gun club.  none of my coworkers believed it either but that's what PD said happened


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## EMS/LEO505 (Oct 12, 2010)

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI5Ho9akqDA[/YOUTUBE]

Funny


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## Aidey (Oct 12, 2010)

DrParasite said:


> oh, and this isn't in the sticks, this happened in one of the most urban cities in NJ, well knowing for being part of part of the knife and gun club.  none of my coworkers believed it either but that's what PD said happened



If I heard that story, I would think my patient was delusional/hallucinating. Or else she had a stuffed moose head fall on her....Are there even moose in NJ?


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## Aidey (Oct 12, 2010)

DrParasite said:


> oh, and this isn't in the sticks, this happened in one of the most urban cities in NJ, well knowing for being part of part of the knife and gun club.  none of my coworkers believed it either but that's what PD said happened



If I heard that story, I would think my patient was delusional/hallucinating. Or else she had a stuffed moose head fall on her....Are there even moose in NJ?


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## Akulahawk (Oct 13, 2010)

I'm a particular fan of the dog that's been barking for the last 20 hours. I think I've had one where "there's a deer eating my bushes..." Every Summer I get the "the kids in the pool next door are too loud."


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## dhaage (Oct 14, 2010)

EMS/LEO505 said:


> [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI5Ho9akqDA[/YOUTUBE]
> 
> Funny



So missed it the first couple times, then realized that the sign they are using for the hospital in that video is actually my local hospital.


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