Am I just being a n00b? Checking jump bag before shift

[LuvGlock]

Recently I started working as a medic @ the company I've been at for 2 years. Our cabinets and jump bags are sealed and tagged by the "supply" person.

Since I'm now a medic, and ultimately responsible for whatever happens on the rig, I've taken to opening all the cabinets and the jump bag and going through them for myself to make sure everything is there. Our supply person holds no certifications, FYI.

One of my supervisors said that I don't have to do this, because if it's tagged and sealed, it's good.

Regarding our supply person, as Rick Harrison says, "It's not that I don't trust you. I just don't trust anybody."

I feel like if SHTF, and I don't have something I need, it's my fault, not the supply person's.

Am I just being a n00b?

 

[emt6207]

Recently I started working as a medic @ the company I've been at for 2 years. Our cabinets and jump bags are sealed and tagged by the "supply" person.

Since I'm now a medic, and ultimately responsible for whatever happens on the rig, I've taken to opening all the cabinets and the jump bag and going through them for myself to make sure everything is there. Our supply person holds no certifications, FYI.

One of my supervisors said that I don't have to do this, because if it's tagged and sealed, it's good.

Regarding our supply person, as Rick Harrison says, "It's not that I don't trust you. I just don't trust anybody."

I feel like if SHTF, and I don't have something I need, it's my fault, not the supply person's.

Am I just being a n00b?

Absolutely not. Granted I'm still looking for my first job but I've been on a ride-along and heard stores where they sometimes are in a hurry and don't bother to check everything and have had an ambulance go out to a scene and realize the cot wasn't in there en route, it was taken out for maintenance and a new one wasn't put back in it yet. That ones a bit more obvious but I mean especially the very less used items, you don't think about it till you actually need it and then oops it was used and forgot to be re-stocked.

I agree that it's your responsibility to make sure the team before hand or in your case the supply person stocked it correctly. You don't want to be out there and go uhm...crap!

 

[Sandog]

Check the gear, cause it's your rear...

 

[hoop762]

Trust, but verify.

Always check your gear

Sent from my Incredible 2 using Tapatalk

 

[NomadicMedic]

I don't trust most people, and there's a crew that I follow that I really don't trust...

I came in to relieve a crew at 0630 a few days ago. They did the pass down report, "we only did a few calls, the truck is fueled, the gear is good..." then we got banged out on a call, and I hadn't checked the gear. "Eh," I thought, "He said it was all good..."

I got on scene and found my gear had no glucometer, no start kit in the IV wrap and no blood tubes for the blood draw. Oh, and 1 20g angio.

WTF?

How is that gear "good"?

I check everything...to at least make sure it's all there, every shift.

 

[emscrazy1]

If I were to break the seals every shift I'd probably get yelled at.

 

[Veneficus]

I am not a fan of the sealed cabinet system.

I like to look for the gear myself, so in a pinch I know where things are at. Especially if something has to be improvised.

If you can't find what you need, it doesn't exist.

There is also certain gear it pays to have more of.

I can go through 4 x 4s like water from a tap.

I like to know if there is a scalpel or those damn plastic scissors in the OB kit.

Speaking of scalpels, there should be big ones, not those tiny little blades designed for abscess drainage.

Scalpels are knives, not saws and are used as the former not the later.

Tape is another thing that needs to be plentyful and easily dispensed. There can never be enough of the silk or clear tearable tape.

Most important, during a call is not the first time you should be seeing or touching rarely used equipment.

 

[Fish]

Question:

Is anything written into the company policy regarding this?

 

[Epi-do]

I check all my equipment, every shift. It is something that was pounded into my head from the very beginning. It really doesn't matter if the off going crew says everything is good, once I am on the truck it is my responsibility to make sure that it really is good.

 

[Ramis46]

Yeah our service checks our own trucks. If people from other departments are checking your stuff, they could potentionaly let something slip, then its on you. We are the ones Ultamintly responsible.

 

[medicdan]

OP, as a new employee, you should be strongly reccomended to open all cabinets and bags, so you are entirely familiar with the layout and contents. It's worth thinking through where you would get all of the supply or equipment for a specific call type-- (for an arrest, for example).

With that said, if there's only one person doing the checks and seals, you're probably in good shape. Once you get used to the truck, and have a handle that the supply person is meeting the listed standards, you can probably tone down your seal breakage.

 

[epipusher]

I would check that the sealed bags is a documented company policy or sop.If not, and the supervisor says you'll be fine since its tagged, I would ask for that in writing. If he says no, or chuckles at this request, I personally would check them every time.

 

[Ewok Jerky]

doesnt have to be a "trust" issue. it can simply be that you want to know the location of every piece of equipment on the rig.

i check out my rig 100% at the start of the rotation and about 80% every other day. the 20% thats left over i figure i would hear about the crew using it cause it would be a code or something out of the ordinary for us.

if anybody other than the normal crew is in my rig its a 100% checked out when i hop in.

 

[WolfmanHarris]

Start of the set of shifts I check every bag, every compartment, every cabinet, equipment in the cab and fluids under the hood.

Every shift I check every bag, check all the major equipment in the compartments and give the cabinets a cursory look for major equipment.

If pick up a truck direct from its quarterly standardization I pop the seals but only because at our station we have a couple of tiny differences on how we keep or gear.

If we got our truck every day sealed and tagged, I would probably get comfortable leaving it that way.

 

[mycrofft]

Having been a trauma bag system manager, I can tell you every opened seal has to be completely turned out and re-inventoried, then re-sealed. If anything is missing, fine, replace it. But when I found someone was consistently opening the seals (or in my case, sometimes opening them and resealing them with other seals!) I had a talk with them and made a memo for record.
In my case, I was supposed to completely inventory twenty-two trauma bags, spread out over fifteen acres (some in areas I had to go find someone to open up), each with about eighteen types of items, every day; theoretically, every shift, but I wasn't there 24/7. It took me six hours a day to do that, and I was so busy counting I couldn't get to resupply when it was needed. Pilferage was high. I talked them into a seal and inspect system, I winnowed the inspections down to forty-five minutes TOTAL, was able to pinpoint trouble locations and address them; after the first six months, things were on an even keel. (Our other facility did not do that; with only ten bags in a single building, they lost three outright [$485 each], the others were constantly out of stock, and they were all discontinued and then disappeared without going through disposal, i.e., stolen).

The alternatives are you have lots of people responsible for what's in the kits so when something is gone, then no one is truly responsible; or, one person is given responsibility and authority, but since it would take too much time and effort each and every sift to inventory each and every sealed kit, you go to a seals and inspection system.

If you are concerned, and especially if stuff is missing, then go to your boss and volunteer to take it over. If you just think you want different stuff, then talk to the boss again, but do not go opening kits and mucking about; everyone has their own likings and civil war will break out. Or, if you like having more of certain articles, bring extras of your own.

When I get to a field setup or an unfamiliar setting, I go through it all, cleaning and checking for outdates and condition but mentally tallying where it all is, and looking particularly for little personal hoards to break up and restock. Then either I reinspect each time I come on, or I seal it.

 

[fortsmithman]

With my Volly service our shifts when we are on call are oone week. We can do what we want but when the tones go off we return to our hall. Before each week long shift we check everything from the cot to the trauma bag we check everything and restock as needed.

 

[mycrofft]

Ideally the responding team will clean, restock and replace the kits they used after every run (the run isn't over 'til you're ready to go again, like new). Instead, we toss the trash back into the kit, slug it back into its cubbyhole, get back to station and declare Miller Time.

 

[LuvGlock]

There is no company policy.

If I had thr same truck and bag, I'd be happy to seal and leave it, but its different every day.

I'm going to talk to the boss and see what he says.

Thanks for the thoughts, all.

 

[Tigger]

Our sealed cabinet and bag system is too convoluted to trust.

The outgoing crew is expected to leave an equipment request form on the windshield at end of shift, and a supervisor is supposed to fill it. However, non-disposable items are obviously stored in these cabinets as well, so they get broken everyday and often times no request form is left so the cabinet just gets sealed after a quick glance. If the outgoing crew forgets that they used a disposable and doesn't request a replacement, the cabinet or bag gets sealed and no one knows. I don't like the system, and will break seals at the start of shift if I can't see all the equipment. With the bag I make sure the 02 is full and that the frequently used stuff is all there.

 

[Handsome Robb]

Medics are assigned first out and airway bags and are responsible for them.

Units are stocked using a speed-load setup and every unit is laid out identically. If we start popping cabinets and breaking into the shrink-wrapped bins just to check we'd get ripped a new one.

Our VSTs are all at least EMT-B if not I or P and are good at what they do. They take offense if you recheck their work.

The monitors get checked seeing as we aren't assigned to them.

That's our system though.