Duty..

[Household6]

I'm a volunteer EMR in a very (very) rural farm area, BLS response time is easily 20-25 minutes in some townships.

soooo, elderly male, stomach pains, difficulty breathing, cold sweats, dizzy. Patient address is six miles from my house, I respond in my POV with my Whacker bag. As I pull into the driveway, dispatch radios out "All First Responders not on scene can cancel"..

Well, I'm there. I pull in, a young woman comes out of the house, says they don't need me, he's fine. She's not the patient, she's not the patient's spouse, she's the granddaughter that lives up the road..

I was very nice, and told her that I'd like to just get a baseline of his vitals for the medics. I'm not sure if I explained the importance of a baseline well enough to her, but I went ahead and treated the old guy, his wife gave him Bayer, I got my vitals every two minutes.

So, this granddaughter... Does she have the authority to kick me (as a volly EMR working as a representative of the ambulance company) off property that isn't hers, and refuse to allow me to treat a patient that is mentally capable?

It made me real uneasy, my gut told me not to leave.

Patient ended up going in, he had a severe vagal nerve reaction from taking a big poop right before he called 911. He's just fine.:wub:

 

[NomadicMedic]

Yep. If they say "you're not coming in" and you were cancelled by dispatch, see ya later.

 

[TheLocalMedic]

99% of the time if I get waved off when I show up, I'm out of there with no questions asked. Every once in a while it may seem like something is off, and I'll just ask to see the RP or patient just to hear it from them. But that's pretty seldom...

And why are you taking vitals every two minutes? I think that, if you were going to take vitals at all, one set would suffice for this person.

 

[DesertMedic66]

If I'm cancelled by dispatch then I will cancel. If I make it on scene I will make contact with the RP and/or the patient and then cancel if needed.

 

[VFlutter]

And why are you taking vitals every two minutes? I think that, if you were going to take vitals at all, one set would suffice for this person.

+1. I only do Q2Min vitals when I initiate vasoactive drips and even then it is overkill 90% of the time.

 

[Household6]

99% of the time if I get waved off when I show up, I'm out of there with no questions asked. Every once in a while it may seem like something is off, and I'll just ask to see the RP or patient just to hear it from them. But that's pretty seldom...

And why are you taking vitals every two minutes? I think that, if you were going to take vitals at all, one set would suffice for this person.

Nothing else to do except take vitals until the rig gets on scene, in my head I thought to watch for decomp.. TBH, I'm still nice and green, and probably need the practice of doing it on scene while people are talking and staring at me. Know what I mean?

It just didn't sit well that I was met outside by someone who wasn't the PT, wasn't the spouse, didn't live there, wasn't a POA.. I'm not going to stand there and argue and get into a kerfuffle over it, but in the case where a patient is competent, wouldn't the patient decide?