MicahW
Forum Crew Member
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I have heard a couple of different opinions on this topic and I was wondering about all of your opinions. Is it ever our job to call the family?
What if it is a pediatric and it would be benificial if the hospital could get parental consent immediately? What if you find a patient unresponsive and you see the patient's phone ringing and the call is from "Mom" or "Dad". If it were your child, wouldn't you want to know immediately. If a patient is dying, it could be the difference between the family getting to say goodby and not. Also, is it a HIPPA violation (and if it is, would it still be considered so if a patient asked "could you please call my family for me?")?
One of the reasons that I ask is that a couple of months ago, as a student, I signed up to take an all night shift at a music festival. The company with which I was training was running EMS there and we also had a medical tent set up. At about 2030, two guys walked up to the front of the tent and told me that they had lost their friend who was a little too drunk. I told them that this wasn't really an ems matter, but that there was a security tent just a couple of hundred feet over. He said that that wasn't necessary and that he just wanted us to let him know if the friend came in as the result of his ETOH. I asked him if he were sure that that was all that he had had (no drugs) and he said yes. Again, I told him that he was probably looking in the wrong place, and that being slightly drunk doesn't really get you a trip to the medical tent, (if it did, most of the people there would have been in the medical tent). Still, I told him to leave a description and number and that I would call him if his friend showed up.
It is now about 2315. A patient comes in, carried off of a golf cart that we were using to transport patients throughout the concert ground. GCS of 3. We throw him on a cot and I start to hook him up to the 3 lead as a medic starts his assesment. I move down to the ankles to place the leg leads and all of the sudden, this guy wakes up an tries to kick me in the face. It takes about 10 big guys to restrain him. My friend, also a student, runs in and looks at the guy and asks if that is the guy who was described by his friends earlier. I told him there was no way: that guy was drunk, this guy a little too screwed up to be a mere ETOH (it was later revealed that he was ETOH, on molly, acid, mushrooms, and had smoked some weed). After being chemically restrained, we transport him to the hospital. I have the peoce of paper with the description on it in my pocket. I realize that this is the guy. I ask my medic if we should call the friends. He tells me that it is the hospital's probelem and to leave the number with them. I wasn't really in any mood to help a guy who had tried to kick me in the face and was now swearing at me while heavily sedated and tied to a stretcher. After we drop him off and start to head back, O get a text from my friend. The friends had stopped in to check if we had seen him. My friend had given them the story and they were pissed at us for not calling them.
Did my friend break any HIPPA regs?
Would I have been in the wrong to call?
What if it is a pediatric and it would be benificial if the hospital could get parental consent immediately? What if you find a patient unresponsive and you see the patient's phone ringing and the call is from "Mom" or "Dad". If it were your child, wouldn't you want to know immediately. If a patient is dying, it could be the difference between the family getting to say goodby and not. Also, is it a HIPPA violation (and if it is, would it still be considered so if a patient asked "could you please call my family for me?")?
One of the reasons that I ask is that a couple of months ago, as a student, I signed up to take an all night shift at a music festival. The company with which I was training was running EMS there and we also had a medical tent set up. At about 2030, two guys walked up to the front of the tent and told me that they had lost their friend who was a little too drunk. I told them that this wasn't really an ems matter, but that there was a security tent just a couple of hundred feet over. He said that that wasn't necessary and that he just wanted us to let him know if the friend came in as the result of his ETOH. I asked him if he were sure that that was all that he had had (no drugs) and he said yes. Again, I told him that he was probably looking in the wrong place, and that being slightly drunk doesn't really get you a trip to the medical tent, (if it did, most of the people there would have been in the medical tent). Still, I told him to leave a description and number and that I would call him if his friend showed up.
It is now about 2315. A patient comes in, carried off of a golf cart that we were using to transport patients throughout the concert ground. GCS of 3. We throw him on a cot and I start to hook him up to the 3 lead as a medic starts his assesment. I move down to the ankles to place the leg leads and all of the sudden, this guy wakes up an tries to kick me in the face. It takes about 10 big guys to restrain him. My friend, also a student, runs in and looks at the guy and asks if that is the guy who was described by his friends earlier. I told him there was no way: that guy was drunk, this guy a little too screwed up to be a mere ETOH (it was later revealed that he was ETOH, on molly, acid, mushrooms, and had smoked some weed). After being chemically restrained, we transport him to the hospital. I have the peoce of paper with the description on it in my pocket. I realize that this is the guy. I ask my medic if we should call the friends. He tells me that it is the hospital's probelem and to leave the number with them. I wasn't really in any mood to help a guy who had tried to kick me in the face and was now swearing at me while heavily sedated and tied to a stretcher. After we drop him off and start to head back, O get a text from my friend. The friends had stopped in to check if we had seen him. My friend had given them the story and they were pissed at us for not calling them.
Did my friend break any HIPPA regs?
Would I have been in the wrong to call?
