Drivers Injured by Riders

[jatollette]

Im looking for articles or varifiable stories of ambulance drivers* injured by passangers. I am trying to revise policy, concerning passanger/riders, and am seeking factual information.

*the term ambulace driver concerns the opperator of the vehicle at time of incident, EMT or Medic. I know how inflamitory that statement is, dont hate.

 

[46Young]

Where I used to work, we only allowed one passenger, and they had to ride in front. We did make exceptions for parents. A rider in the back can intefere with pt care.

 

[medic417]

Also check with your insurance as they may prefer/require patient only or raise your rates.

Honestly no one but the patient should be in the ambulance besides the Paramedics.

 

[Guardian]

Also check with your insurance as they may prefer/require patient only or raise your rates.

Honestly no one but the patient should be in the ambulance besides the Paramedics.

I totally disagree. There is a whole plethora of legitimate reasons to take ride-alongs. I do it all the time.

 

[Guardian]

Im looking for articles or varifiable stories of ambulance drivers* injured by passangers. I am trying to revise policy, concerning passanger/riders, and am seeking factual information.

*the term ambulace driver concerns the opperator of the vehicle at time of incident, EMT or Medic. I know how inflamitory that statement is, dont hate.

Be careful, policy revisers are annoying and rarely do more good than harm.

 

[djmedic913]

I determine whether I will allow a rider on a case by case basis...
Any Pt that is circling the drain and needed to be at the hospital 10 mins before they called or a cardiac arrest...NO Riders...not even parents...

The only time I allow riders in the patient compartment is if it is a parent and that parent is actually calming the patient...the parent is upsetting my patient...no riders...

Any rider that is appearing to stress or aggravate, etc. NO riders...

When I do allow riders they go up front in the passenger's seat...belted in or we don't move. And believe it our not I take many riders...

I take only 1 rider...exception is little kids that will not have supervision otherwise...either parent is patient or parent is going with child patient and no one to watch other child...

There are ALWAYS an exception to the rule...but for the most part this is how I determine riders...And when traveling with a rider I always announce the number of patients and number of riders to dispatch.

 

[Aidey]

There are only 2 situations I allow riders in the back. The first is if the patient is in police custody of some sort, the second is if the patient needs an interpreter. If it's a critical patient, the interpreter isn't really necessary. On the flip side, our company policy is that if someone asks if they can ride, they have to be allowed to sit up front unless there is a REALLY good reason not to let them, such as alcohol intoxication, or a domestic violence situation etc. Under our policy going code 3 isn't even considered a good reason not to let them ride, although most people try and strongly discourage people from riding if it looks like we will be going code. It's a sucky policy, but they see it as good customer service to allow people to ride, and they have had complaints when family has been told they can't ride in.