Long Transports

[VentMedic]

Many of the services are being contracted to private facilities now because of the cut backs in all the services in the 1990s. Rehab Sevices are where they cut the most and is now the most needed. Much of their TBI services are now contracted out.

 

[MedicPrincess]

My service does regular, AT LEAST 1 per day - sometimes more, transfers from area hospitals to various VA facilities...usually to Biloxi. Generally, we are taking them to the Rehab facility.

 

[skyemt]

and if they say their hungry, than what?

i agree... we can't give food or drink, or let them go to the bathroom, so really no point in asking those type of questions, unless for assessment purposes.

 

[certguy]

I've done a lot of long distance runs . We used to go to El Centro , Brawley , and Calexico a lot for cardiac or post trauma pts. ( off road accident victims from the Glamis sand dunes ) . L.A. a lot , mostly for Kaiser , Mexico - TJ and Rosarita ( felt like I was driving a rolling target , we had 3 different maps of TJ and none of them matched , this made finding some of the places real fun ) Palm Springs , witnessed a bicycle accident with a closed head injury while transporting our pt. . We had no radio contact or cell phone contact . Luckily , we had a 3 man crew . I took our trainee and worked the accident while my partner cared for our pt. till FR got there . Thought we were gonna die , it was 112 degrees out there and we were in dark blue uniforms ! My shirt was drenched and I felt dehydrated by the time we got back on the road , so did the newby . Another time , with another newby , the family pulled out a wad of cash that'd choke a horse and paid in advance ( we called for the field supervisor to pick up the cash and issue a reciept , I sure didn't want to be responsible for that much ) , then tipped us each $ 50.00 and got offended because we weren't going to take it . We sent them a thank you card for the huge tips . They really liked how we took care of thier dad .


My longest was from San Diego to some town in Northern CA I don't remember for a post MVA with multiple fx. who was scared silly of flying . We wound up a few hours from San Fransisco , then had to turn right around and come back because the company wouldn't spring for a hotel . I'm glad we were both drivers . We were both wiped out by the time we got back . Bummer , we could've had dinner at Fisherman's Wharf !

 

[AJemt]

the one service i run with our transport times are anywhere from 20-40 minutes depending on where we are which hospital and traffic. bls calls or non-critical pts, if the pt wants to talk we can talk about whatever they want to talk about, or i will ask more detailed questions about something that has me confuzzled, etc.
the service i used to work for i did some LD transports, most averaged about 1-4 hrs (usually psych transports, some medical about 45 minutes away to another hospital/drs office). if they wanted to talk we talked if not, then i sat in the captains chair behind their head and did paperwork or studied (only on the psych runs and only if they were sleeping!) longest transport i did was from lanc co pa to VA near roanoke i think it was ......left at 11-12ish got back a little after midnight. also did one from pittsburgh pa to reading pa left station at 8a got back around 1930. i personally with the pt to VA it was a guy who was going back to where the rest of hte family was for rehab. we talked some as much as he wanted, he slept some, and he was allowed to eat/drink/get off litter w/ assistance for bathroom per hsopital so it was pretty much a taxi ride but fun nontheless - aberdeen steakhouse has really good food :-D
but that company has done to NY, MA, OH, NC, and was going to do one to WI but that ended up fixed wing instead.

 

[JPINFV]

We rarely get a long one, but it does happen from time to time. I think the longest one I've been on was a 2-2.5 hour trip from Orange County up to the other side of LA (UCLA-Olive View). For the really long ones (going fro So. Cal. to Vegas, for example), it was planned out well in advance with a volunteer (volunteer as in signed up, not free) and plans for a motel room. Every so often we end up in San Diego proper (2 hours), which is fun when we're transporting unstable patients (RN/RT CCT with a really, really bad RN).

 

[NRNCEMT]

The longest x-port that I was ever part of was an ALS run from Grand Strand Regional Medical Center of Myrtle Beach, SC to Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. I forgot the Hospital name that we took him to in Penn, but it was 17 hours there and 20 back. I loved the over-time that week.