Bystander Complaints

TheLocalMedic said:
A couple years ago we had some tweaker start screaming that we were kidnapping his neighbor as we were trying to load up a patient. He kept running around the ambulance, flapping his arms and asking why nobody was doing anything to save his neighbor from us. It was all pretty funny until he punched a firefighter who was trying to calm him down, then it got hilarious...
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I know this post is really really old, but holy cow, this made me laugh so hard!!
 
You think dealing with the complains sucks, wait to you have to deal with patient satisfaction and it affects your paycheck.
 
ERDoc said:
You think dealing with the complains sucks, wait to you have to deal with patient satisfaction and it affects your paycheck.
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That's still the biggest crap ever.
 
I don't make the rules (or have any say in them), I'm just forced to play by them.
 
The look I make when bystanders try to control my scene


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I make the same face when a family member of a pt happens to be an MA and tells me how to practice.
 
ERDoc said:
I make the same face when a family member of a pt happens to be an MA and tells me how to practice.
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I make that face on a routine basis.

It's the same face I make when ED staff refers to me as the "ambulance driver".
 
COmedic17 said:
I make that face on a routine basis.

It's the same face I make when ED staff refers to me as the "ambulance driver".
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Same here and then I correct them on the proper terms. It hasn't been an issue in quite some time.
 
Recently (ish) had a call for cardiac at a doctors office. In the ambo trying to get an IV (hypotensive and Brady), all of a sudden my partner in the airway seat lunges up and looked pissed. I turn and realize some old man is literally climbing up the back door the ambulance, banging on the door, looking in, and yelling at us to move the ambulance because he is a very important person who cannot stand to be stuck in his parking spot one more second. He swiftly received a lecture from my partner about interfering with emergency personnel...
 
Be happy he was just banging on door. We had a person who moved our ambulance around the back of a restaurant while we were in side on a run (lights on and all); the police arrested him as he was climbing in the engine to move 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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The word ambulance is printed on most ambulances. While they all might be considered an emergency vehicle, they are not always on an emergency assignment. In fact some ambulances do not really provide an emergency response. Where you in fact on an emergency assignment, or were you just parking there to park there? If you were on an actual assignment, you should not have moved. If not, they have the right to ask you to move, it is private property. Just because you are inside of a vehicle that says ambulance does not mean you can park anywhere you want... Actually scratch that, even on an emergency assignment, they have a right to tell you to move. Still private property. You can tell a cop they can't come in your home without a warrant, same principal.
 
sirengirl said:
Not a "bystander complaint" but related to this- had to restrain myself with every fiber of my being a few shifts ago not to march out into the waiting room and read the family the riot act. Transported a 70ish lung CA patient with acute SOB which by the time we got her in the truck went from sitting up, tripoding and 2-3 word sentences, to agonal with rales and flash PE. Partner took the call and I took us in P1 to the nearest ER, about 2-4 miles, and happen to notice in my rear view that the family had turned the flashers on their Rav 4 on and are speeding down residential roads super close behind me, blowing stop signs, and running red lights- right by a cop, too, who did nothing (law enforcement in my area is, sadly, notoriously useless for helping us and in fact creates more work for EMS by shoving people off on us that they don't want to deal with). While it was an oversight of me not to run back into the house and tell them not to follow me, I feel like it's fairly common knowledge that you are NOT ALLOWED to follow an ambulance. I don't care who I've got in the truck, you just DON'T follow my ambulance as if putting on your 4-ways is going to transform your mid-size SUV into an emergency response vehicle and give you the right to break traffic laws.

Not only that, but the family broke into the back of the ER and came running in before we even got the patient on the bed. Thankfully security was able to corral them and pen them up in the waiting room while they put the pt on BiPap, CPAP, and then intubated her....

The only thing that stopped me from telling those idiots off was that the ER had ice cream bars in the EMS fridge, so I ate that and sulked for a bit until I decided I didn't care.


As for bystander complaints, though, I had a caller who called for her ailing uncle who had a UTI diagnosed that morning (cipro of course not being taken as directed), who was still in discomfort and she wanted us to give him morphine and then leave him home so he could sleep. When informed that we do not give out narcotics to help people sleep through their penis pain (literally he was just saying that his penis hurt), and that all I could do was take him to the hospital and allow the doctor to make the decision, she said that I was stupid and useless and then asked if we took him, would there be a bill?

Needless to say, they signed a refusal and went POV to get their morphine for his penis pain, because we are stupid. :glare:
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I think the issue with this is your error, not the families. The truth is, not everybody knows not to follow an ambulance. Some people think that putting on their flashers and riding close the ambulance is safe. Some people are just stupid. Some people are just in an off state because their family is in trouble, they are not thinking right. Its your fault for not telling them in the beginning to not follow and drive by all traffic laws. That's your error not theirs. When you noticed them following, you could have also stopped and told them to not follow.

As for the family running into the ED, are you kidding me? Again, their family has a life threatening issue. Not necessarily thinking straight. Even when they are, they want to know what is happening. Not as bad as you make it sound. Its not someone just driving recklessly and being nosey.
 
ZombieEMT said:
Its your fault for not telling them in the beginning to not follow and drive by all traffic laws. That's your error not theirs. When you noticed them following, you could have also stopped and told them to not follow.
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I completely disagree with you on this one. It's not up to EMS personnel to instruct others how to drive, nor should they stop, pull over, and tell them not to follow.

I can instantly see their response be, "Why are you stopping?" "You're ambulance drivers! Don't tell me how to drive!"
 
ZombieEMT said:
The word ambulance is printed on most ambulances. While they all might be considered an emergency vehicle, they are not always on an emergency assignment. In fact some ambulances do not really provide an emergency response. Where you in fact on an emergency assignment, or were you just parking there to park there? If you were on an actual assignment, you should not have moved. If not, they have the right to ask you to move, it is private property. Just because you are inside of a vehicle that says ambulance does not mean you can park anywhere you want... Actually scratch that, even on an emergency assignment, they have a right to tell you to move. Still private property. You can tell a cop they can't come in your home without a warrant, same principal.
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Not sure who you are, but to assume that I don't know, nor obey the law in regards to emergency vehicles and their daily operations in emergency and non-emergency situations is foolish. Also to assume that I don't know the difference between a emergency response ambulance, and a non-emergency response ambulance is even more foolish as I've worked in both areas of EMS respectively.

Anyways... To clarify. My partner and I, at the time, worked for a combination primary 911/Inter-facility agency and were posted at company assigned, and approved post in the parking lot of a local shopping center just down the street from the local Fire & EMS dispatch.
 
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Chimpie said:
I completely disagree with you on this one. It's not up to EMS personnel to instruct others how to drive, nor should they stop, pull over, and tell them not to follow.

I can instantly see their response be, "Why are you stopping?" "You're ambulance drivers! Don't tell me how to drive!"
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I tell people how to drive all the time. "Nice and slow, take your time getting there. You're of no help to anyone if you get into a wreck on the way to the hospital."

If someone is driving unsafely and tailgating me, you better believe I'm going to shut it down. They're creating dangerous conditions for me and them.
 
There was one time we were transporting a patient code 3 and noticed the husband was following us through red lights and the like, we pulled over, told him explicitly not to do that, noticed he promptly ignored us and followed us through the next red light so we just shut down the lights and sirens and continued code 2 to the hospital.
 
Jim37F said:
There was one time we were transporting a patient code 3 and noticed the husband was following us through red lights and the like, we pulled over, told him explicitly not to do that, noticed he promptly ignored us and followed us through the next red light so we just shut down the lights and sirens and continued code 2 to the hospital.
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I did that last week. Had a family member tailgating us through all the intersections. My medic took notice, and asked me to shut it down and continue in code 2. The family member sure was curious as to why we reduced enroute to the hospital.
 
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