Search results

  1. drjekyl75

    Courtesy IVs

    The county I'm in is finicky at best. We actually have our IV kit set up with sets from each of the hospital and try our best to use their stuff if we are going to their facility. If the patient is bad they get what they get. More than once I've had nurses ***** that we didn't use the extension...
  2. drjekyl75

    CPR and aed business

    You can make good money teaching, but the hard part is the marketing side. When my buddy lost his job he taught CPR for a year to get by. He cold called every Doctor, Dentist, and Chiropractor within an hour drive to inquire about teaching the staff at those offices. He taught nights and...
  3. drjekyl75

    Work 24, get paid for 16

    When I started most of the local companies paid the 16 for 24 hr. shift. You got paid while you we on a call and if you were out 3 or more hours they paid you for the full 8 hrs. There were some SLOW rides back to the station if you were close to the 3 hours.
  4. drjekyl75

    Will Fire-based EMS become a nationwide practice?

    There's a few different set-ups in the area I work in. The county I work the road in is 100% private ems for all 911 calls. Due to a huge change in the tax base over the last 20 years there is not enough money in the budget to fund full time fire/ems. The county where I work in the hospital is...
  5. drjekyl75

    OCFA to try Private Paramedics for 911 Transport

    The entire county I work in is Private EMS only. Due to a huge reduction in the tax base the last fire run EMS municipality ended about 6 years ago!
  6. drjekyl75

    4 High-Value Jobs That Don’t Pay Nearly Enough

    In the city I live in, Firefighter/Medics start first year @ $48K they also get a meal stipend from the township of $1,000/year and handle only emergency medicals. Paramedics in the same area for private EMS companies that do the interfacility transports and run only back-up emergencies start at...
  7. drjekyl75

    Does your department have a web site?

    The other company I work for www.swartzambulance.com
  8. drjekyl75

    What got me....

    I had another, "What got me" moment this past week. I've been doing this for awhile so most things don't bother me, but we were dispatched to a local Medical Imaging office. They wanted transport to the ER following x-rays on a 5 year old girl. Long story short she complained of pain in her left...
  9. drjekyl75

    Why waste time at hospital?

    The system I work in we exchange drug boxes and replace IV fluids at the hospital pharmacy. A couple of the hospitals for whatever reason have pharmacies that are a 10 minute walk from the ER. Take advantage of the down time because there will be days where you barely get a chance to breathe. My...
  10. drjekyl75

    When it gets to you

    It's different for everyone, when I was a new EMT I worked with a paramedic who was really good. We got a call to her uncle's house and he was in cardiac arrest. She worked him as hard as anyone could and he didn't make it. I at the time couldn't fathom how she was able to keep her composure...
  11. drjekyl75

    Decreased paramedic Student Class numbers

    I'm not sure about the success rates of candidates of the schools in your area, but some near me have a reputation as "EMS Factories." They always have large numbers of students that enroll and graduate the program, but only a small handful actually pass national registry. I had a student riding...
  12. drjekyl75

    o two disposable cpap

    We did a demo on a few units and wound up going with disposable cpap masks. Not sure if you've looked that route. http://blssystemsltd.com/cpap_em.html
  13. drjekyl75

    How "Basic" is BLS in your area

    My company runs in multiple counties and each have slightly different protocols. For the most part EMT-B's can: Combi-Tube / King Airway Aspirin Nitro (patient assist) C-Pap has come and gone a couple of times Epi-Pen autoinjector Albuterol (patient assist) Glucose (oral) Pulse Oximetry...
  14. drjekyl75

    Decreased paramedic Student Class numbers

    In Michigan, there are a ton of paramedic schools, but the quality of them varies greatly. Within a 30 minute ride of my house there are 11 schools and only 2-3 actually have a high success rate of turning out candidates that pass the NREMT written
  15. drjekyl75

    Keeping Intubation Skills Sharp

    While not the same as practicing on a live patient, we have medical control physicians that come in once a year to our company. The doc's go over proper technique for intubation and different scenarios for which type of intubation should be used. We then have to nasal and oral intubate the...
  16. drjekyl75

    Blood sugar?

    It used to be part of our protocols to draw labs, this was until a mix up happened. On a MVA with multiple patients, 4 ended up going to the same trauma center. The medic drew blood and in haste taped the wrong tubes to the wrong patient. This happened a few times and we lost the field blood...
  17. drjekyl75

    Does your department have a web site?

    Huron Valley Ambulance: Private Non-Profit Ambulance Service that operates in 8 Counties in Michigan https://www.hva.org/
  18. drjekyl75

    Police Based Paramedics

    The EMS system where I work the county Sheriff Dept has a paramedic division. They are non-transporting "chase" ALS units. They are funded by county dollars and first respond with BLS units to provide the ALS Intercept. They are well paid. They start around $18/hr and top out around $27/hr after...
  19. drjekyl75

    Securing Controlled Meds

    Our system isn't the most secured. We carry a large orange "tackle box" that is sealed with a plastic lock. All the narcs are in pill bottles with a sticker over them. My company has a locked cabinet that the drug box is in inside the truck. The cabinet is locked with a key, but all employees in...
  20. drjekyl75

    Is It Time?

    Unions aren't necessarily the answer. I work for a private company without a union and make on average $3 more an hour than medics working for the union represented private company 5 minutes up the road. I think a higher education standard is a great start. I see the new class of EMT-B's...
Top