EMT-Driver (No Breaks?)(No Eating while Driving?)

[JPINFV]

GPS will pick you up even if you're in another state i am using http://www.teletrac.net . As long as you do not have hot call and going to make eta, dispatch will not have a problem with you stopping at 7/11 for 3-5 min.

Same way it worked at So. Cal. company I worked for. In general, scheduled calls were dispatched about 20-30 minutes prior to pickup time and as long as you clocked on scene about pickup time, you were good. While there are plenty of piss-poor companies, they're equaled by the general piss-poor work ethic shown by many working at IFT companies. In general, there's plenty of time if there's a bit of flexibility on all around and generally the companies are flexible enough. It's the "ZOMG, we were dispatched to a call with a pick up time in 20 minutes. WE HAVE TO LEAVE NOW AND WAIT ON SCENE" or the "I wanna eat NOW! WHAA" people who have problems most of the time.

I'm not saying that the OP is either of those, especially since it's very possible to get ran for an entire shift if there's excess calls or too few units, but it shouldn't be like that either day.

 

[JPINFV]

There's no real reason for an IFT company, at least, to not be able to provide lunches to people who want them; they simply don't want to do so. I understand that EMS means emergencies, which mean not having guaranteed break times, but the hospital wanting to discharge a pt at 1400 instead of 1430 is not an emergency.

There's no real reason to dilly dally around. Especially with dialysis transports. If the dialysis clinic doesn't have a bunch of extra chairs and someplace to store patients (for lack of a better term) who can't wait in the lobby, you're now delaying someone else's 3 hour treatment, and depending on how the schedule is, someone's treatment after that. It's very easy to start a domino effect with dialysis clinics. Similarly, hospital discharges might include patients boarding in the ER waiting for that bed. Clear the patient, hospital staff can turn over the room, and you've just opened up a bed in the ER. Similarly, the same domino effect occurs in dispatch, which if an emergency call comes in, will now be delayed because everyone is at lunch or picking up the slack from the lunch breaks.

 

[Aerin-Sol]

There's no real reason to dilly dally around. Especially with dialysis transports. If the dialysis clinic doesn't have a bunch of extra chairs and someplace to store patients (for lack of a better term) who can't wait in the lobby, you're now delaying someone else's 3 hour treatment, and depending on how the schedule is, someone's treatment after that. It's very easy to start a domino effect with dialysis clinics. Similarly, hospital discharges might include patients boarding in the ER waiting for that bed. Clear the patient, hospital staff can turn over the room, and you've just opened up a bed in the ER. Similarly, the same domino effect occurs in dispatch, which if an emergency call comes in, will now be delayed because everyone is at lunch or picking up the slack from the lunch breaks.

So build that into the schedule. If a company can figure out that it needs 5 800-1700 trucks, 7 1100-2200 trucks, etc, then it can figure out what staffing it needs to be able to give each crew a 30 minute lunch break. Yeah, there could be exceptions of "sorry, need you to do a dialysis run first" or "sorry, hospital Y is super-full and needs to get some patients clear first" or even "your lunch break is ending early because there's an emergency run" (I believe this is what 911 companies do?) but the only reason to never even attempt to schedule in lunch breaks is valuing money more than your employees/labour law, as 46young said. I cannot count the number of times I've been sent somewhere only to show up and have the nurse tell me they didn't request us until 30-45 minutes later.

 

[looker]

So build that into the schedule. If a company can figure out that it needs 5 800-1700 trucks, 7 1100-2200 trucks, etc, then it can figure out what staffing it needs to be able to give each crew a 30 minute lunch break. Yeah, there could be exceptions of "sorry, need you to do a dialysis run first" or "sorry, hospital Y is super-full and needs to get some patients clear first" or even "your lunch break is ending early because there's an emergency run" (I believe this is what 911 companies do?) but the only reason to never even attempt to schedule in lunch breaks is valuing money more than your employees/labour law, as 46young said. I cannot count the number of times I've been sent somewhere only to show up and have the nurse tell me they didn't request us until 30-45 minutes later.

No labor law is violated by not having scheduled lunch or even giving someone lunch as been posted before. Each day is different and each day schedule is different so it's nearly impossible to schedule what you suggest. You basically eat when you're down be it between calls or waiting for patient to finish his dialysis etc. That is why you should pack food with you so you can eat when you have time.

 

[JPINFV]

So build that into the schedule. If a company can figure out that it needs 5 800-1700 trucks, 7 1100-2200 trucks, etc, then it can figure out what staffing it needs to be able to give each crew a 30 minute lunch break. Yeah, there could be exceptions of "sorry, need you to do a dialysis run first" or "sorry, hospital Y is super-full and needs to get some patients clear first" or even "your lunch break is ending early because there's an emergency run" (I believe this is what 911 companies do?) but the only reason to never even attempt to schedule in lunch breaks is valuing money more than your employees/labour law, as 46young said. I cannot count the number of times I've been sent somewhere only to show up and have the nurse tell me they didn't request us until 30-45 minutes later.

Ok, I need you to predict how many unscheduled calls (essentially everything that isn't dialysis or prescheduled doctors appointments. This includes hospital discharges). Also, where those calls are going to originate from and where they will be going to. I've seen days where I wasn't doing anything for half the shift and then the hour changes and I'm running calls the rest of the shift and being asked to stay afterwards (personally, it was a soft sell to get me to work overtime at $20/hour) because all of a sudden everyone is calling. If the company has nursing home and hospital contracts, it's next to impossible to estimate when and which days will be busy without scheduling a pure excess of units. Of course, excess of units means more providers to pay, which means less money to go around to everyone, regardless how stingy the owner is.

 

[Aerin-Sol]

No labor law is violated by not having scheduled lunch or even giving someone lunch as been posted before. Each day is different and each day schedule is different so it's nearly impossible to schedule what you suggest. You basically eat when you're down be it between calls or waiting for patient to finish his dialysis etc. That is why you should pack food with you so you can eat when you have time.

Labor laws vary by state. I know that CA, for example, has exceptions for healthcare workers, but not every state does. In my state (KY) you're legally required to have a 30 minute lunch break between 3-5 hours into your shift, even if you're a healthcare worker. The only exception is if you have a mutually agreed arrangement with your employer, which I certainly never entered in to. "You're an EMT" may be the reason given for ignoring the law, but it is not an acceptable legal arrangement, and neither is "you need to go pick up a patient." I'm not suggesting anyone refuse a run because they're 4.5 hours into their shift and want to eat, but spreading misinformation about the law is one of the reasons abuse of it is allowed to continue.

Ok, I need you to predict how many unscheduled calls (essentially everything that isn't dialysis or prescheduled doctors appointments. This includes hospital discharges). Also, where those calls are going to originate from and where they will be going to. I've seen days where I wasn't doing anything for half the shift and then the hour changes and I'm running calls the rest of the shift and being asked to stay afterwards (personally, it was a soft sell to get me to work overtime at $20/hour) because all of a sudden everyone is calling. If the company has nursing home and hospital contracts, it's next to impossible to estimate when and which days will be busy without scheduling a pure excess of units. Of course, excess of units means more providers to pay, which means less money to go around to everyone, regardless how stingy the owner is.

My last job was at a call center and they had an entire department to do just that. You can't predict exactly, but you can look at a number of factors, make an estimation, and go on that. For example: An average Sunday has 30 less runs than an average Friday, December has 400 more runs than October, we've had 60 more runs this week than our previous years would have predicted. Of course, this would mean actually paying 1+ employees to run the numbers, and that's just crazy. Yes, there will always be days that are exceptions to the algorithms, but the solution to that is not refusing to attempt to use them.

There are obviously areas where *something* has been done to build in breaks and such, as evidenced by several posters' amazement at the labour practices here.

 

[slloth]

Get a new partner. I personally would give my partner time to eat. If your partner wouldn't do that than you two aren't meshing for whatever reason.

 

[looker]

Labor laws vary by state. I know that CA, for example, has exceptions for healthcare workers, but not every state does. In my state (KY) you're legally required to have a 30 minute lunch break between 3-5 hours into your shift, even if you're a healthcare worker. The only exception is if you have a mutually agreed arrangement with your employer, which I certainly never entered in to. "You're an EMT" may be the reason given for ignoring the law, but it is not an acceptable legal arrangement, and neither is "you need to go pick up a patient." I'm not suggesting anyone refuse a run because they're 4.5 hours into their shift and want to eat, but spreading misinformation about the law is one of the reasons abuse of it is allowed to continue.

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It got nothing to do with exceptions for health care workers. If you do not give someone lunch you have to pay for that hour.

"Q. My employer is not allowing me to take a meal period. Is there anything I can do about this situation?

A. Yes, there is something you can do if you are covered by the meal period requirements of the law. If your employer fails to provide the required meal period, you are to be paid one hour of pay at your regular rate of compensation for each workday that the meal period is not provided"

http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQ_MealPeriods.htm

 

[JPINFV]

Looker, there's 2 seperate issues. EMS has, what I would consider, an on-call break since we aren't relieved of all of our duties during a break nor are we free to do as we please during a break (so, for example, any employer can require employees to stay on site, but that break must be paid). As such, even if a break time is available, unless the company chooses to bring the crew back to base where they are free to do as they please, it must be covered.

However, there's additionally the following clause. "If an employer fails to provide an employee a meal period in accordance with an applicable IWC Order, the employer must pay one additional hour of pay at the employee's regular rate of pay for each workday that the meal period is not provided. IWC Orders and Labor Code Section 226.7 This additional hour is not counted as hours worked for purposes of overtime calculations." So if absolutely no down time is available during a shift then the employee is due an extra hour. However, good luck to an employee proving that they deserve an extra hour of pay.

 

[46Young]

My old hospital had a good thing going for us: We were paid 37.5 hours a week, which was considered FT. We were scheduled for 40 hours. This amounted to a 1/2 hour break for every 8 hours, 45 mins on 12 hours, or one hour on 16. For EMS, if we worked through w/o a break, we were paid time and a half for that missed break. If we were taken off of break early, we got that break period as OT as well. If it's slow enough for breaks, the health system saved up to 2 1/2 hours a week per employee in pay. If they were busy, the revenue from the calls more than paid for that time and a half.