As many know, I work for a fairly large private service, almost entirely PB (as the basic driver on an ALS truck). I am based in a mid-size urban service, but we are frequently in many of the surrounding suburban communities.
We're pulled for calls by the municipal department fairly often when they don't have trucks available (we generally match or hold better response times because we have trucks around), but recently our dispatch has been getting more and more calls from the suburban departments, looking for assistance.
We're not being called for mutual aid, but to transport patients to hospitals the local fire department does not want to go to (often in the city). Generally, the ALS fire ambulance will arrive on scene, hear the patient wants to go somewhere undesirable, and they call us. Because we rarely have trucks in the suburban communities, it can take us 20 or 30 minutes to get down there, L&S.
I did three of these my last shift earlier this week. On the last one, the (ALS) crew was inside, with no equipment, no vitals, no interventions for at least 20 minutes before we arrived. They gave us a short hand-off and brief demographics, but nothing else. This patient was had acute SOB, and while the crew did step up her home N/C, they had done no other treatment or assessment as far as we know. Their parting comment to us was "you're just going to BLS this in, right?". Nevertheless, the patient got an NRB, IV, three nebs and a trauma room. Last I heard, the patient was admitted to the ICU.
Not all of the patients are unstable, and I absolutely recognize the importance of keeping resources in the response area, but this just seems to be poor patient care-- delaying transport and definitive treatment, or not performing a full assessment when it's warranted. Even if the responding fire department crew isn't transporting, shouldn't they be completing a PCR, indicating the patient was assessed, treated and care transferred?
Is this phenomenon common to other areas? We are a private, and in general dispatch will not refuse calls, but isn't this a bit excessive? I'll hold off on generalizations about the work ethic of some of these firefighters.
We're pulled for calls by the municipal department fairly often when they don't have trucks available (we generally match or hold better response times because we have trucks around), but recently our dispatch has been getting more and more calls from the suburban departments, looking for assistance.
We're not being called for mutual aid, but to transport patients to hospitals the local fire department does not want to go to (often in the city). Generally, the ALS fire ambulance will arrive on scene, hear the patient wants to go somewhere undesirable, and they call us. Because we rarely have trucks in the suburban communities, it can take us 20 or 30 minutes to get down there, L&S.
I did three of these my last shift earlier this week. On the last one, the (ALS) crew was inside, with no equipment, no vitals, no interventions for at least 20 minutes before we arrived. They gave us a short hand-off and brief demographics, but nothing else. This patient was had acute SOB, and while the crew did step up her home N/C, they had done no other treatment or assessment as far as we know. Their parting comment to us was "you're just going to BLS this in, right?". Nevertheless, the patient got an NRB, IV, three nebs and a trauma room. Last I heard, the patient was admitted to the ICU.
Not all of the patients are unstable, and I absolutely recognize the importance of keeping resources in the response area, but this just seems to be poor patient care-- delaying transport and definitive treatment, or not performing a full assessment when it's warranted. Even if the responding fire department crew isn't transporting, shouldn't they be completing a PCR, indicating the patient was assessed, treated and care transferred?
Is this phenomenon common to other areas? We are a private, and in general dispatch will not refuse calls, but isn't this a bit excessive? I'll hold off on generalizations about the work ethic of some of these firefighters.