Search results

If you're interested in Texas, I have plenty of contacts throughout the state and you're welcome at my small, not too busy, rural service.

With the current educational standards and our limited knowledge of medicine outside of the acute care setting, paramedic initiated refusals are little more than full employment for lawyers. I'm putting down a down payment on my BMW 635 now.

I'd like to think that a jury would consider you "reasonable and prudent."

Junior high, high school, and college. And nope, I'm not even Catholic.

Impressive! Did you take Latin?

This is the same person, who, in another thread, is an EMT for BEMS and a paramedic for a private service -- and looking to move to another locale to work basing his decision, in part, on the amount of penetrating trauma. As we'd say in the legal arena, "Res ipsa loquitor." The thing speaks...

My Spidey-senses are tingling, telling me this sounds like a homework or exam question. :o

Indeed. I'm not sure how Etomidate alone would "facilitate" my obtaining an airway.

For the record, at the services I've been involved with, it requires extra education, not only on the protocol itself, but airway management as well. Our small rural service has it. We also did a separate RSI course for our medics and additionally have purchased video scopes for intubation...

Each of these services have their own pro's and con's, but look at the northern side of Houston namely Harris County Emergency Corps, Cypress Creek EMS, and Montgomery County Hospital District. I'd also echo the recommendation for Grady as far as crap-storms.

I could very easily see the lack of understanding of RSI and the underlying pharmacology (not to mention basic ethics -- first, do no harm) exhibited in some posts as the best arguments for a medical director NOT to trust medics with paralytics.

Agreed. A few years back here in Austin, the children's hospital moved out of the city/county hospital/trauma center. I thought the smartest thing would be to turn the children's ER into an urgent care/fast track for non-acute patients. It was turned into more ER beds. Surprise. The ER...

So, is community paramedicine midlevel practice, a method of home health care, a means to divert "frequent fliers" and system abusers, a method to reduce ER visits, or a way to "treat and street" patients? Honestly, I'm not sure anyone knows.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/doctors-raise-doubts-on-ambulance-plan-20130610-2o05b.html Interesting article from Australia raising some doubts/concerns.

We shouldn't tolerate being assaulted, no matter how minor. Assault is assault. Period.

So, in other words, creating a new form of home health care provider where the entry is paramedic certification and/or experience? Might just work....

The best advice I was given -- "When you don't know what else to do, it's a good idea to go to the hospital."

In my ideal world, we'd have educated, not trained, paramedics. And they'd be allowed to use clinical judgment, not protocols. I think "community paramedic" is another symptom of our lack of a true professional identity. Remember when everyone wanted to be a tactical paramedic, a hazmat...

I'm not advocating lowest common denominator. I've worked in some exceptionally aggressive systems where high level care was the standard. I also realize that the standards in those systems are, unfortunately, the exception rather than the rule. All I am trying to say is that home health...

Every time I read about California's scope of practice, I am thankful to live in a delegated practice state (Texas) where there is no scope of practice and our service's medical director makes such decisions.