Bringing in an AEDs on BLS Calls

Southern California scares the kittens out of me. What happens in a major disaster?
 
Brandon Oto said:
Southern California scares the kittens out of me. What happens in a major disaster?
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During a disaster it's mostly triage and BLS to hospitals. Up to 2 BLS or one 1 ALS patient per ambulances.

Obviously the ALS patients would have a medic but in a disaster very few ALS interventions would be done with a hospital on every corner. Sometimes 3 per corner. (Sunset.. Lol)

My company, a non 911 provider, responded with LA City/County to a disaster a few years ago and it was just that. Triage package and go.
 
Well, I get that. I mean that hopefully nobody codes en route because it's gonna be the precordial thump for them. (I guess they can call for an ambulance!)
 
But don't think I don't see your point. It's just one of those stupid things. Like in LA City. Someone can be laying in the street 1/2 mile from a hospital bleeding out or in cardiac arrest. It is illegal for a non LAFD ambulance to transport. And there are a lot of other ambulances around. Even if I just happen to roll up on it. That sucks. Call 911
 
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NPO said:
During a disaster it's mostly triage and BLS to hospitals. Up to 2 BLS or one 1 ALS patient per ambulances.

Obviously the ALS patients would have a medic but in a disaster very few ALS interventions would be done with a hospital on every corner. Sometimes 3 per corner. (Sunset.. Lol)

My company, a non 911 provider, responded with LA City/County to a disaster a few years ago and it was just that. Triage package and go.
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This doesn't quite fit for all of SoCal. We can transport as many patients as we feel comfortable. So that number could easily be well over 2. Heck during hurricane sandy we had ambulances transporting up to 6 patients each.
 
DEmedic said:
In most cases, the BLS people here don't even bring the stretcher to the house. Getting them to carry an AED in on every call would be impossible. :)
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honestly, I don't bring the stretcher in either.

If it gets left outside, it might disappear (either by rolling away or someone borrowing it), and most of our homes have steps to get into the house, and I don't like carrying the cot up several steps (its a transportation device, not a carrying device).

As I said, the light stairchair gets taken in on most calls, and the reeves for any unconcoius.
 
Realize that we're not in an urban/city environment, most of the homes here are one story ranchers and 98% of the patients here go on the stretcher. It makes sense to bring it, along with a stair chair or reeves if you're so inclined, close to the place where the patient is.
 
I cannot stand not bringing at least the med bag in on calls, even if Fire is on scene already. I always get told not to and then always need something. It's less rare with the monitor, but I'd rather not send someone to get it. We never bring the stretcher with us either, someone always has to go get it from the truck which just adds unnecessary time. Many of our patients we can walk to the door, so weather permitting I'd prefer to leave it outside. It's a rural area, no one is going to take it.
 
I consider it somewhat bad form not to bring some means of extrication to the patient side in nearly every case. Likewise for at least your basic tools. But not the AED, or suction, or your damned splints.

Obviously this is somewhat arbitrary. You draw the line where you want.
 
Brandon Oto said:
I consider it somewhat bad form not to bring some means of extrication to the patient side in nearly every case. Likewise for at least your basic tools. But not the AED, or suction, or your damned splints.

Obviously this is somewhat arbitrary. You draw the line where you want.
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It strikes me as odd that some people don't bring the gurney out of the truck on every call. It's an automatic thing for me.
 
Brandon Oto said:
I consider it somewhat bad form not to bring some means of extrication to the patient side in nearly every case. Likewise for at least your basic tools. But not the AED, or suction, or your damned splints.

Obviously this is somewhat arbitrary. You draw the line where you want.
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A lot of this depends on your area. Where I'm at most of the houses are a single story so we will bring the gurney to the front door and then leave it there until it is needed.

The only time we automatically bring in anything is for full arrests or falls.
 
Chris07 said:
It strikes me as odd that some people don't bring the gurney out of the truck on every call. It's an automatic thing for me.
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Yes, well, when I worked in Cali I used the stairchair once. Out here it's most places. One or the other.
 
AED is required equipment in my county even though BLS units are not allowed to run 911. (Most times there are only 2 or 3 countywide anyway as compared to 15-20 ALS units.)

I still can't believe that some SoCal counties still do not allow AEDs on the BLS units. It's kinda sad when the customer service desk at Walmart has one and an ambulance doesn't.
 
CentralCalEMT said:
I still can't believe that some SoCal counties still do not allow AEDs on the BLS units. It's kinda sad when the customer service desk at Walmart has one and an ambulance doesn't.
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Seriously??? What is the possible reasoning behind that? 911 or not, every ambulance should have an AED. I was already frustrated enough that a nursing home and rehab facility in my old city didn't have one. After working my second or third code there, I had to ask the nurse what justified that glaringly obvious lack of vital equipment.
 
chaz90 said:
Seriously??? What is the possible reasoning behind that? 911 or not, every ambulance should have an AED. I was already frustrated enough that a nursing home and rehab facility in my old city didn't have one. After working my second or third code there, I had to ask the nurse what justified that glaringly obvious lack of vital equipment.
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For many places an AED is an optional piece of equipment on BLS ambulances. In California ambulance companies are known for being extremely cheap so it saves them money.
 
DesertEMT66 said:
For many places an AED is an optional piece of equipment on BLS ambulances. In California ambulance companies are known for being extremely cheap so it saves them money.
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Right, but not allowing BLS units to carry them is a whole different level of ignorance. IMO, they should be required anyway rather than optional, but completely outlawing qualified EMTs to carry them on an ambulance? This is after all meant to be a layperson skill.
 
I worked for a 911 BLS ambulance in southern California.. On BLS calls we bring our gurney (with 02) along with the AED and jump bag. If we arrive on scene before fire for an ALS call, we do the same.
 
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chaz90 said:
Right, but not allowing BLS units to carry them is a whole different level of ignorance. IMO, they should be required anyway rather than optional, but completely outlawing qualified EMTs to carry them on an ambulance? This is after all meant to be a layperson skill.
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Welcome to California EMS. They are starting to become mandatory everywhere.

As a general rule for Cali if it is optional we don't carry it or have it in our skills. SpO2 is in the EMT scope for my county, having a SpO2 monitor is optional so we don't carry them on BLS units.
 
DesertEMT66 said:
Welcome to California EMS. They are starting to become mandatory everywhere.

As a general rule for Cali if it is optional we don't carry it or have it in our skills. SpO2 is in the EMT scope for my county, having a SpO2 monitor is optional so we don't carry them on BLS units.
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Yeah I never understood why we're allowed to get temp and SpO2 on the machines at the hospitals, but only carry manual BP cuffs in the ambulances. I just love it telling the nurse asking for vitals that I don't have any way to get those two.
 
Jim37F said:
Yeah I never understood why we're allowed to get temp and SpO2 on the machines at the hospitals, but only carry manual BP cuffs in the ambulances. I just love it telling the nurse asking for vitals that I don't have any way to get those two.
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Temp and SpO2 = $$$$
If they aren't required some ambulance companies aren't going to supply them because they want to make as much money as possible.
 
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