Question about standbys

[bearmedic]

Hello i am not new to the site but new to the posting thing. I am an assistant director of operations in Texas, today our very small BLS service was confronted by a VP of an oil drilling company saying they would like to work with us on having an ambulance on standby during drilling. He stated that it was in their OSHA regulations to have not only an EMT but the ambulance at the site. He stated he has an EMT on site but needs an ambulance. In my mind and thinking of the possible injuries i would think he would need a ALS truck, am i think this right? please any information would be helpful

 

[Anjel]

This is just my $.02.

Would having an ALS unit there be recommended yea sure. OSHA says he HAS to have an EMT and an ambulance.

I don't see him wanting to pay for more than that. You can recommend it. But the fact of the matter is an emt is cheaper than a medic. BLS is cheaper than ALS.

So you can recommend it but the decision is ultimately his. You could however have the BLS unit there. And have a specific plan for what they do if ALS is needed. Where to intercept and stuff like that.

Again just my opinion I have no management experience or anything like that.

 

[EMSDude54343]

An ALS tuck would be best in my opinon, but the on site BLS providers can always req an ALS unit respond to them or intercept them if possible. The way my dept work these types of events is since we only have ALS trucks, we send an ALS turck for standby and if it will be a dedicated truck (not able to pull them for other calls in the area) then we pull in people to staff them as overtime and add the cost of staffing the rig into the fee that is charged for the truck to be on standby.
As for whether ALS or BLS is best for standby during drilling, obviously ALS is best for a worse case scenario, but if OSHA law only requires BLS then the company may fight you for the fee you charge.
Try and get some statistics and types of injuries that occur at thier facility and other facilities that do the same type of work, then from there you might be able to get better idea of what resource type you will need.
hope this helps, Good Luck

 

[bearmedic]

Thanks for the input i have spent a good bit of time trying to find some more info on this topic. i am meeting with the VP of our service about it and will suggest to them that they look a little more into it before making a desision on it.
I think if we are able to do this it could help (hopefully not hurt) our service grow here. I just have no clue how the billing would go for this. But thats up to higher ups.

 

[EMT-IT753]

Seriously?

This seems pretty crazy to have OSHA require an ambulance at a drilling rig while drilling. How many drilling rigs are out there across the country that do not have ambulances on site?
I know I have never had an ambulance at any of the drilling rigs I have worked on and the company never received a fine from OSHA. We have had some serious accidents where a crew would have been nice to have on site though.
You would have to staff that truck around the clock through morning and evening tower as well as graveyard shifts since drilling is continues until they hit their mark and that can take several days or more.
On another note, that would be BORING watching pipe go into the ground