Private EMS = Skycap?

[MMiz]

A big part of working for private EMS is taking patients home from hospitals. Sometimes that includes taking home their five personal belongings bags, flowers, and everything else. How much is too much? Are we expected to take it all?

Yesterday I was taking a pt from a hospital to a local NH. He had two small personal belongings bags and a wheelchair. My partner straight out refused to take the wheelchair, saying we're not a skycap service. The pt's father brought the wheelchair his is POV, but had takent the bus today to the hospital. He didn't want to drive the 15 minutes from his house to the hospital to pick up the wheelchair.

I understood where he was coming from, as the man probably shouldn't have been on the road in the first place. It would have been a tight fit, but we could have stuck the wheelchair between our jump kit rack and the bench seat.

How much is too much in EMS?

 

[TTLWHKR]

Sky Captains? The people who sHine your shoes in the airport?

We didn't have animal control, that was something that the PD usually did with their gun. So we used to transport pets w/ patients that didn't want to leave them at like an MVA. We had cabinets at the front w/ clear doors, we'd just take our bags out, throw in a blanket and shut the animal in there. Cats weren't bad, but ugh. I detest dogs.


I spelled shine wrong. <_<

 

[KEVD18]

i pnce had to call a chair car to come and collect all a pt's bags and such. they had been in a nursing home for quite a while and were going home to die. filled the chair car......

 

[vtemti]

Being an on call service, I have affected a no scheduled, non-emergency TX policy so I can't help with the question, but it is nice not to have a truck with Ryder or U-haul written on the side.

 

[Jon]

I've had a few bad ones of these.

I used to work as a subcontracted private EMS employee working at Jefferson Hospital as "JeffSTAT" We had several contracted sites we provided transport from that were part of the Jeff system.

We go to take Grandma from a nursing home to the ED that is 10 blocks away (Closest) for Resp. Diff. They insisted it was BLS, so they didn't have to call 911 (Policy: ALS=FireRescue, BLS=Private Transport). We get there, 30 minutes later due to traffic, and found grandma lying in bed, rales to the apexes, and on 2L O2 N/C delivered by eye. We go to get her on the strecher... paperwork isn't done, and they insist on taking all of the patient's worldly possessions and dumping them in a large trash bag in our presence, and giving us the trash bag, saying that she is a short-term patient, and they don't keep short-term patient's belongings... they said it was a new policy... I rasied hell afterwords with my boss and dispatcher, filed a report... didn't see it happen again.

Also, at JeffSTAT, our supervisor was *NUTS* about safety, etc. Policy, per him, "Per our insurance" No wheelchairs, walkers, or other large items and 2 bag limit.

I didn't have a problem with an occaisonal wheelchair, and most of our knee replacement patients had walkers. Wheelchairs and walkers were secured with a seatbelt so as to not become a flying object. What was doen by the street crews, most of them had worked there 5 or 10 years, was we said that we "aren't supposed to take wheelchairs" but we made exceptions for "good reasons" As for bags... we would rather take 3 or 4 light bags than 2 heavy ones that would rip... but we would occasionally draw the line when someone was coming of a 2-month ICU/Neuro ICU stay, and had a roofful of crap....

I don't like being a bellhop, but sometimes you have to.... it is another part of customer service... how would you feel if you were separated from all your worldly possessions?

I think, though that the floor staff could help out... most patients don't need a bedpan full of mosturising creme and 4 plastic water pitchers....

Jon