disheartened

[Buzz]

The patient has an appointment?! What are you saying about not accepting the patient? If they do not have an appointment then contact should be made with who sent the person BY the facility to get the matter straightened out. Missing a radiation treatment or any treatment can be detrimental to the patient AND IS NOT YOUR DECISION TO MAKE AS AN EMT. The fact that the patient has a scheduled appointment and the patient signs a consent for THEIR treatment is their acceptance.

If you have paperwork that must be signed to show that you delivered the patient as per your company's requirement then that is how you should explain it.

If you had an obligation to stay until the treatment is finished to avoid return delay, that can be a different issue but does not mean the patient is to be under your direct care the whole time. CT or Radiation therapy is not under the scope of an EMT.

Reread what abandonment consists of. They would be more likely to get in trouble for releasing a patient to your care if the patient required a higher level of care than an EMT-B or even a Paramedic could provide.

I don't recall ever stating that I would be the cause for a patient to miss an appointment.. just that I would have someone there sign the form as receiving staff. While the patient isn't under my care, I'm getting a form signed stating that in case anything does happen during that time. I have no doubts that the staff at those sorts of places are better prepared to handle something that may come up, I don't want some upset and angry family member to have any way to blame me for it.

As for the abandonment issue, wouldn't me leaving that wing of the building or maybe even going across the street to grab some food for twenty minutes be considered abandonment if no one is there with the patient? The staff signing it just proves that someone was there while we weren't.

I think I'm having a problem clearly communicating exactly what I mean...