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

We rarely break the cabinets open, however there are a few things I peek in for(tourniquets and alcohol swabs). First in bag, drugs, back up drugs, 02, back boards, and monitor get checked everyday.

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We don't have a seal system, and for some reason, every truck is different. We are "assigned" trucks for our shift, I get generally the same truck for the 4 days im on shift Sun-Wed. However, it gets used in the days off and people move stuff around.

Last Sun I came in for my shift and the cot, toughbook, toughbook charger, all 3 extra portable O2 cylinders, nasal cannulas and airway bag had been stolen by another crew sometime between wed and sun.

Needless to say, I check each and every cabinet and bag before I leave the station, because you never know whats going to turn up missing.
 
n7lxi said:
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.
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Yeah, I would have stroked seeing that. I check everything and if I find something missing, I usually stab somebody until they bleed, then they apologize but thats just me, an overall neurotic.:rofl:

325.
 
My company doesn't do a "tag and seal" system, so I can't really speak as to whether or not you're just being a "noob". Me personally, I would probably do the same thing, just because I don't really trust most people. Unless it's company policy to NOT open the seal to check, then I'll do it; quite honestly, I don't give a crap if it offends the people who stocked the ambulance, they're not the ones who have to improvise if a piece of equipment isn't there.

As for my company though, I've experienced the same thing as n7lxi where the off-going crew said the gear was all good and I find that we're missing things when I go over the rig.
 
Our ambulances have no sealed compartments or bags. I check off the ambulance every shift I run. If I don't lay my hands on it personally, It's not there.
 
phideux said:
Our ambulances have no sealed compartments or bags. I check off the ambulance every shift I run. If I don't lay my hands on it personally, It's not there.
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I completely agree. With all this being said… I like doing my rig checks with the PW, I’ve seen people tell me it wasn’t necessary because they knew where everything is and what we are suppose to have.
 
fast65 said:
Unless it's company policy to NOT open the seal to check, then I'll do it; quite honestly, I don't give a crap if it offends the people who stocked the ambulance, they're not the ones who have to improvise if a piece of equipment isn't there.
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Agreed however they are held to very high standards here. If we are missing something an occurrence report get's written and the VST who stocked the unit gets talked to. If there's a pattern they are gone. Same as if we are popping bins we don't need constantly we will get talked to and if you continue to do it there will be administrative actions taken.

We run too busy of a system to fully check our ambulances before every shift. We check certain things such as o2 levels a quick look in the cabinets to check if a bin is missing and monitor supplies but I have yet to find something missing or misplaced when I needed it.

Edit: The field crew does a required monthly med check at the start of each month for expired or compromised meds or other materials with expiration dates.
 
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NVRob said:
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.
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The agency where I did my internship was very similar to this. Nothing was shrink wrapped, but everything was tagged, and if you were breaking tags just to check you would get hunted down and chewed out.

They were understanding if a crew had a student or whatever (my medic left them a note explaining) but having to inventory every single cabinet for no good reason did not make them happy.

Frankly, once you know what is where leave things tagged. I agree with Mycrofft that continuing to break all of the seals all of the time will cause issues for you.
 
My agency conducts a full inventory every day. With our (very) low call volume and assigned trucks, it gets redundant. We do seal-and-inspect the narcotics with the hospital's pharmacist and each medic checks the drug boxes at the beginning of their shift.

On my truck, EMS1, I tend to move everything onto the cot (suction, med bag, trauma bag, airway bag). My usual partner likes it. The EMT-I who occasionally works with me and thinks he runs things because he's a full-timer hates me for it, which led to a "my truck, my policy, and if you can't find the bright red med box in plain view, you need to get smarter" talk.

Seriously, who complains about gear being accessible, appropriately portable, and well-marked?
 
Is it secured in a compartment before you move it to the cot? Because I'm thinking all that stuff just laying there on the cot becomes projectiles when you crash.
 
n7lxi said:
Is it secured in a compartment before you move it to the cot? Because I'm thinking all that stuff just laying there on the cot becomes projectiles when you crash.
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The trauma bag only has to come through the pass-through once to make sure that those that like all the stuff on the cot put a seatbelt through a handle on each bag/monitor.
 
Better to check every shift than run on that one call and not have an IV start which happened to me last week. whose fault was that ? me myself and I.
 
n7lxi said:
Is it secured in a compartment before you move it to the cot? Because I'm thinking all that stuff just laying there on the cot becomes projectiles when you crash.
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it's easier when you are running back to back calls to just pull out the cot with everything ready to go.
 
epipusher said:
it's easier when you are running back to back calls to just pull out the cot with everything ready to go.
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I'm not concerned about ease, I'm more interested in crew safety when the truck is hit and all of that unsecured equipment becomes projectiles.

We continuously preach safety to our crews and then some of us intentionally bypass the engineering controls (not stowing equipment in secured compartments, not locking a monitor into a bracket, not wearing a seatbelt) and then wonder why EMTs and medics get killed in ambulance wrecks.

SMH.
 
n7lxi said:
Is it secured in a compartment before you move it to the cot? Because I'm thinking all that stuff just laying there on the cot becomes projectiles when you crash.
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epipusher said:
it's easier when you are running back to back calls to just pull out the cot with everything ready to go.
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His question was, is everything secured to the cot? You know, with straps? Or are they just sitting on top?
 
n7lxi said:
I'm not concerned about ease, I'm more interested in crew safety when the truck is hit and all of that unsecured equipment becomes projectiles.

We continuously preach safety to our crews and then some of us intentionally bypass the engineering controls (not stowing equipment in secured compartments, not locking a monitor into a bracket, not wearing a seatbelt) and then wonder why EMTs and medics get killed in ambulance wrecks.

SMH.
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Nice to know Im not the only one. I saw a pic last year, I think it was on emsclosecalls.com, that showed where a LP12 flew against the front wall of an ambulance during a wreck striking the cabinet door. The door had the distinct impression of a LP12 face left in it. The medic was sitting in the captains chair about a foot from where the monitor hit the cabinet. I cant find the pic now that I want to save it. If I remember the details correctly the wreck wasnt the unit's fault; another vehicle crossed the center line and hit them head on.

It isnt that hard to throw a stretcher strap thru a bag handle, thru the monitor handle and to keep the O2 bottles in a secured holder. Everything is still on the cot but it keeps the projectiles down.
 
That's better than nothing, but look for pictures of what happens to the stretcher in an ambulance accident. Everything is thrown around.
 
n7lxi said:
That's better than nothing, but look for pictures of what happens to the stretcher in an ambulance accident. Everything is thrown around.
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Yep. We had a unit roll last year and it opened up the eyes of our medics as to what can happen and where stuff will go. We're very safety focused and still learned a few things that led to changes in how items are stored.
 
shfd739 said:
Yep. We had a unit roll last year and it opened up the eyes of our medics as to what can happen and where stuff will go. We're very safety focused and still learned a few things that led to changes in how items are stored.
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It is a shame it always takes a disaster before people pay attention to these things...
 
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