Being a patient with your own service

Seaglass

Lesser Ambulance Ape
973
0
0
When a coworker winds up being a patient, how does your place treat them?

The other night, one of the other crews wound up running a call for one of our members who'd done something dumb. He's now on administrative duty only, and everyone's been giving him a hard time about it now that it seems he'll be alright. He thinks it's pretty funny. That's generally been how things around here go, whether the coworker did something stupid or not.

I'd figured it was just part of the whole macho dysfunctional family EMS thing, but I just found out that another guy wound up driving himself to the hospital with severe chest pain because he didn't want the duty crew making fun of him. Then it turned out half the place seems to have "call me for a secret emergency hospital ride" agreements with each other. Especially the ones who'd been patients before.

So, this bothers me. I'm curious, too. How do other companies and departments out there handle this? If you needed to go to the hospital, would you avoid calling your own service?
 

medic417

The Truth Provider
5,104
3
38
Yes I would avoid calling my service. Why? I live almost 3 hours away. :p

I have been a patient with a service I worked with. No problems. They even threw the bill out. So all they did to keep me alive I got free.
 

Pudge40

Forum Lieutenant
126
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Thats what I like about the service I run with. We treat everyone like our family.
 

Dominion

Forum Asst. Chief
607
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Now the guy who is on admin duty. Is that because of his injury or because of what he did? I don't think it's right to put someone on admin duty because of something they've done off duty. I've done things in my past that would be considered dumb, never seriously injured myself though.

I became dehydrated once during an outdoors concert and was transported with my service. Bill was not tossed out but insurance paid for most of it. Private service, the medic treated me well though, as if I was a family member.
 

rescue99

Forum Deputy Chief
1,073
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Now the guy who is on admin duty. Is that because of his injury or because of what he did? I don't think it's right to put someone on admin duty because of something they've done off duty. I've done things in my past that would be considered dumb, never seriously injured myself though.

Sooo, HIPAA have any role in this scenario or did the guy go around telling everyone what happened himself?
 
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Seaglass

Lesser Ambulance Ape
973
0
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He's on admin duty because it's a broken leg. He's been telling anyone who asks how he got it--seems to think it'll make a great addition to an already-lengthy 'dumb things I did when drunk' list. He's not being disciplined, and won't be. Off-duty, nobody cares.

To clear things up, the duty crew in question will never mention a member's call to anyone else. But it's traditional for the patient to thank them in meetings, and pretty much everyone will. It's also a small enough area so that it's easy enough to match calls with weird injuries.

For the record, we always throw out bills for our members and their families.
 

bunkie

Forum Asst. Chief
620
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If I need an ambulance, I'd likely not be able to make the decision on which service I was calling. My pride doesn't stand in the way of my injuries.
 

Aidey

Community Leader Emeritus
4,800
11
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I was a patient once (asthma attack) for my own service as a volunteer, and it was a mess. The EMT I-99 (not a paramedic level service) that was in charge was a guy and was freaking out I was going to be upset he had to reach in my shirt to put the electrodes on my chest and listen to my lungs.

If I were ever to be transported now I would just call our dispatch directly and have them dispatch an ambulance instead of calling 911 and getting the fire truck too. I am familiar with the guys who work at the station I am near and if they do show up, I am not unlocking the door until the ambulance arrives.
 

Sapphyre

Forum Asst. Chief
914
6
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The teasing and such only kicks in if they were doing something stupid. If someone is transported while on duty, the whole division rallies, like it was family. And, yes, one of the "perks" is that any part of the bill not covered by insurance is eaten by the company. If someone is transported off duty, it is just like any other call (I have transported coworkers' family, but dread the day I have to transport an actual off duty coworker).

Oh, and I don't worry about being transported by people I know off duty, I don't live in my area.
 
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Sasha

Forum Chief
7,667
11
0
Should I ever need my company's interfacility services I would be fine with it. For the most part I work with very good providers. I don't know if we have any policy regarding this, never asked.
 

johnrsemt

Forum Deputy Chief
1,672
256
83
I have been transported by my old service for:

Fall on ice, with concussion
Anaphalaxis (sp?) * 3
Chest Pain turned out to be weird allergic reaction.

then ended up as a patient in the ER I worked at * 2 allergic reactions for both.

crews and staff were all professional, but we had fun with it.
 

Akulahawk

EMT-P/ED RN
Community Leader
4,923
1,321
113
One of the companies I used to work for had to transport a couple of their off-duty crew... for various reasons. If they had insurance, that was billed and the remainder was written off. If there was no insurance, the bill went away. As for the care given: as if it were family.

As to teasing about it... they did enough stuff on their own... like the guy (not me) who locked his keys in the car with the motor running..


Twice...
 
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