Bystander Complaints

I had a person come into a facility to yell at the staff that our rig was blocking her from parking... she absolutely had to park in the first handicap space and not the other six that were available and unblocked.

So to summarize: She parked her car and blocked the entire driveway (we parked where we did in order not to do that), comes into the facility and hunts down a staff member, has them come tell us we are blocking her, goes back out to her car and waits for us to move. After we move she pulls into the very first handicap space instead of the one directly adjacent to it she could have used, and then walks back into the facility. The facility staff apologized on her behalf but didn't want to upset her by telling her to wait or park in the next spot.

All this theoretically so she doesn't have to do as much walking... :wacko:

Another one... we transport patients to a medical science building attached to a hospital. They have volunteers staff a table there. The volunteers call and complain to our management when we park for a few minutes to unload a patient under the overhang instead of out in the open in the parking spaces and then having to cross a street, yet they have no problem allowing construction vehicles and delivery vehicles to park there. In short, delivering packages ok. Delivering patients, go away.
 
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Working in a city, its common for us to double park on the street during emergencies. We've gotten a few complaints here or there from that, lol.
 
Not necessarily a complaint per say but related. Was running P1 into the hospital with a STEMI alert a few days ago down one of the most notoriously busy roads in my county. Was hitting about 60 or so and traffic was doing as they should and moving to my right so I could pass by.

Aaaaand then I come up on a older model lifted truck hauling a boat.

Refuses to get out of my way. I go to swerve and pass on the right but the car in that lane is slowing down ahead so I can't make it. Swerve back and am hitting my brakes (cue smell of burning rubber) and the driver of the truck is also slowing down but making no attempt to get over into now clear right lane. I have every siren, light, and airhorn going for a good quarter mile before I reach a stretch of road long enough to make a complete pass on the right. Pull around the truck/boat, airhorn still blaring, and come up to see-

Two snot nosed teenage boys who have the audacity to be giving ME dirty looks through their open windows. Dear god if only I had a ram bar on the front of my rig, those brats wouldn't have had a boat, or a rear end on their truck anymore...
 
Honestly, I'd have given you a pretty dirty look myself... The picture you paint is pretty aggressive, unnecessary, and unsafe. :unsure:
 
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Feel sorry for the medic/EMT in the back with you swerving back and forth and slamming on your brakes.
 
DesertEMT66 said:
Feel sorry for the medic/EMT in the back with you swerving back and forth and slamming on your brakes.
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Don't forget the STEMI patient who could probably do without the added stress and anxiety...
 
I can't say I have ever had anyone get upset with us for where we park, only that we won't tell them what is going on. They want to know who is hurt or sick. When we say that it is a hipaa violation to give out details it can irritate them but oh well.
 
Perhaps I wasn't clear in my post: brakes hard due to them braking in front of me. Swerved to try to get around them and could not due to there not being enough room in the right lane to get all the way in front of them to pass. They, however, had plenty of room to merge and slow down in that lane, yanno, not in front of me.
 
Probably about once a month I'll take a 911 call from a bystander that's complaining about a street being blocked, or demanding to know what is going on. if it's a parking complaint, I'll provide them a few seconds to vent, ask them if it's an emergency, and tell them to hang up. When they're being nosy I just say it's an ongoing incident and hangup.

On the 911 lines we constantly get berated, I can't go a half hour without being cursed out. We just have to let it roll off though, people are upset about the situation, and have no concept of time, and generally view us as a barrier not a gateway. What's really kind of sad, are the ones that believe we are the responding unit, and that by staying on the line we are delaying response. A lot of our complaints are the result of poor public education.
 
I personally try to avoid these situations by preventing them from happening. If not blocking anybody in, is possible, then I do it. I will obviously not jeopardize my safety or patient care but I do try to be considerate of others. If I pull into a parking lot, and can park my truck, and pull a stretcher within reasonable distance, I do. The other thing that I take into consideration is the seriousness of the call. Just because a patient dial 911 does not make it an "emergency." If you get a report of minor injury/lift assist or something like toothache, soar throat, abdominal pain, etc and other BLS calls, then why not take a few extra steps to make everyone happy...

Yes people do get angry when blocked in and there is plenty of room to park the ambulance, myself included. If I am on my way to work and get blocked in by an ambulance for 20 minutes when they could have just parked 10ft further, I would get frustrated too.
 
The best response, in a case like this, is no response. Load up your gear and move on. (Easy to say I know)
 
Aidey said:
We often get people who walk up to the ambulance while posted in various parking lots who berate us for wasting their "tax dollars" by idling the engine. It seems especially common when it is below freezing or above 80. Usually they stop when they are told we are a private company, but not always.
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Got told by an older private security guard that my partner and I weren't allowed to park and idle in an empty shopping center parking lot around 0130 one night. He then proceeded to say that the only people who were allowed to park and idle in said empty shopping center parking lot were emergency responders, on duty and in their respective apparatus. He failed to notice the word AMBULANCE on the side of our rig, and despite us informing him that we are emergency responders, he wouldn't hear it and told us to move or he would be notifying the police department so a citation could be issued.
 
CodeBru1984 said:
Got told by an older private security guard that my partner and I weren't allowed to park and idle in an empty shopping center parking lot around 0130 one night. He then proceeded to say that the only people who were allowed to park and idle in said empty shopping center parking lot were emergency responders, on duty and in their respective apparatus. He failed to notice the word AMBULANCE on the side of our rig, and despite us informing him that we are emergency responders, he wouldn't hear it and told us to move or he would be notifying the police department so a citation could be issued.
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That would make me more than grumpy.
 
CodeBru1984 said:
Got told by an older private security guard that my partner and I weren't allowed to park and idle in an empty shopping center parking lot around 0130 one night. He then proceeded to say that the only people who were allowed to park and idle in said empty shopping center parking lot were emergency responders, on duty and in their respective apparatus. He failed to notice the word AMBULANCE on the side of our rig, and despite us informing him that we are emergency responders, he wouldn't hear it and told us to move or he would be notifying the police department so a citation could be issued.
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I really hope you guys didn't move.

I would have stayed there, waited for PD to arrive, and then laugh with PD.
 
DesertEMT66 said:
I really hope you guys didn't move.

I would have stayed there, waited for PD to arrive, and then laugh with PD.
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That was my first thought, but it is private property, and their rep was telling them to move. Ridiculous, but even PD would probably be forced to write a trespassing ticket if it came down to it.
 
CodeBru1984 said:
Got told by an older private security guard that my partner and I weren't allowed to park and idle in an empty shopping center parking lot around 0130 one night. He then proceeded to say that the only people who were allowed to park and idle in said empty shopping center parking lot were emergency responders, on duty and in their respective apparatus. He failed to notice the word AMBULANCE on the side of our rig, and despite us informing him that we are emergency responders, he wouldn't hear it and told us to move or he would be notifying the police department so a citation could be issued.
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Same thing happened to a crew that works at my company... they just staid in the parking lot and nothing happened haha
 
DesertEMT66 said:
I really hope you guys didn't move.

I would have stayed there, waited for PD to arrive, and then laugh with PD.
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Sadly we moved. I wasn't working with my usual partner that night or else we would have stayed put.
 
OP, just mount up and go away. I hated bystanders of all sorts.
 
chaz90 said:
That was my first thought, but it is private property, and their rep was telling them to move. Ridiculous, but even PD would probably be forced to write a trespassing ticket if it came down to it.
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But the security rep said that emergency responders can park there. I really hope that an ambulance qualifies as an emergency response vehicle.
 
DesertEMT66 said:
But the security rep said that emergency responders can park there. I really hope that an ambulance qualifies as an emergency response vehicle.
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Apparently not according to the security rep. I used to work security and never once did I tell an emergency vehicle that they couldn't park somewhere.
 
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