Overseas "TMS"

BLSBoy

makes good girls go bad
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With all this talk about furthering our education, and why the states are so far behind, it has lead me to do some thinkin (I know, scary).

How many TMS (Transport Medical Services, cause there ain't no emergency in shuffling pts from the floor to SNF, or the renal roundup. You might have flishy flashes and a woo woo, but thats just a fancy taxi ya got there) are there overseas? And what exactly do they do?

I mean, here in the states, a BLS ambulance crew is used and abused just so the ER can open up a bed, or the uneducated (or ignorant) floor staff can FINALLY get rid of Mrs. Mcgillicuddy in bed 508, cause her son won't be there until 5, and they want her gone NOW, so they check off the box, and call for a taxi. I mean ambulance.

So, my foreign friends, is this a common thing for y'all as well?
And what are the educational requirements for a stretcher fetcher in your country? Further, are their just interfacility/discharge agencies, or does everyone do their fair share?
 

AJ Hidell

Forum Deputy Chief
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Ontario, Canada has the right idea. Transfer services abound, and there are no regulations about who staffs them. They are not EMS, and no EMS training is required to work there. They are horizontal taxis with zero connexion to EMS. The U.S. should wise up in that respect and divorce EMS from the horizontal taxi industry, and all the baggage they carry. It would result in a lot better image for EMS, and a lot better consumer pricing for non-emergency transports.
 

subliminal1284

Forum Lieutenant
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Around here in WI there are plenty of non emergency transport companies, there was plenty of them in SW Florida too when I lived there.
 

Jon

Administrator
Community Leader
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I beleive the UK has a similar system with "horizontal taxis" being staffed with folks with basic first aid knowledge...

Of course, there will also always be a need for ALS/SCT level interfacility transport, and I could make an argument for some BLS-level interfacility stuff - but not discharges from hopsitals to ECF's.
 
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