So what do you call it?

What's your preference?

  • Stretcher

    Votes: 37 64.9%
  • Cot

    Votes: 16 28.1%
  • Gurney

    Votes: 11 19.3%
  • Bed

    Votes: 4 7.0%
  • N/A

    Votes: 2 3.5%

  • Total voters
    57

mikie

Forum Lurker
1,071
1
36
Just seeing the stats on our usage of the synonymous terms for a stretcher...
 

lightsandsirens5

Forum Deputy Chief
3,970
19
38
Its a Gurney. :)

Not a cot. That is something soldiers sleep on in camp.

Not a bed. Yea....just not. Way to many differences to name.

Not a stretcher. That has four handles, no legs or wheels and can fold up very small.
 

usafmedic45

Forum Deputy Chief
3,796
5
0
Not a stretcher. That has four handles, no legs or wheels and can fold up very small

Actually, that's technically a litter if you want to use the actual military term. BTW, there have been wheel attachements for those for quite some time.

http://med-dept.com/litters.php
 

TransportJockey

Forum Chief
8,623
1,675
113
I"ve always called it a cot. Annoyed the crap out of me when I worked in Denver that they called it a 'pram'
 

Aidey

Community Leader Emeritus
4,800
11
38
Depends. It is usually the gurney, sometimes it is the stretcher, and if I'm trying to get some old hard of hearing patient to sit on it properly, or it is a little kid, it is the bed.
 

TransportJockey

Forum Chief
8,623
1,675
113
That sounds like high effort. Honestly, "rig" and "bus" annoy me.

I say cot or stretcher about 50/50.
Heh I tend to call the truck a rig or bus on a regular basis. But again, in Denver they called the ambulance a 'car'... Oh well, the scenery is worth going back to eventually :p
 

Veneficus

Forum Chief
7,301
16
0
I have no preference, I try to adapt to the local lingo when speaking about stuff.

My first job in private ambulance was an eye opener when nobody knew what I was talking about when I refered to the ambulance as a "squad."

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
 

abckidsmom

Dances with Patients
3,380
5
36
I have no preference, I try to adapt to the local lingo when speaking about stuff.

My first job in private ambulance was an eye opener when nobody knew what I was talking about when I refered to the ambulance as a "squad."

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Around here, we say "truck."

After 15 years here and there in municpal EMS-only departments, my husband started in a fire department. Over there, a truck has a ladder, an engine has a pump, and that vehicle with the bed in the back is a MEDIC, unless it's staffed with a BLS provider, in which case it's an ambulance.

Crazy what 50 miles and a whole different attitude will get for ya.

What annoys me about the "rig" and "bus" stuff is when people do it here, where people just don't say that. If you come from somewhere where that's what they say, I give you a pass, but if you started here and spent all your career in this area, don't try and be all exotic. lol.

Like what I think matters, anyway!
 

NomadicMedic

I know a guy who knows a guy.
12,097
6,845
113
Yeah, it all depends on where you're from.

I call it it a stretcher or "the bed". One partner calls it a gurney (he's from California) somebody else here calls it a cot.

My girlfriend is a fire medic and at her place they refer to it as "the wheels".
As in, "Hey guys, go get my wheels."

I call the ambulance "the truck". At another service where I work, they are called "cars". At my fire job it's either a medic unit (ALS) or Aid Car (BLS).
 

LuvGlock

Forum Crew Member
45
0
0
FWIW, on their website, Stryker calls the things in hospitals and ORs "stretchers" and the things in the back of ambulances "cots".
 

mycrofft

Still crazy but elsewhere
11,322
48
48
"What do you call a stretcher"? A stretcher.

STRETCHER: a folding canvas litter with a bar or other device to stretch it open laterally; otherwise, the longitudinal handles will meet over the patient when lifted.
images


LITTER: device to bear a patient from here to there, foldable.
images


GURNEY: a specific, non-folding patient table with wheels.
images

COT: a small provisional bed, usually folding.
images



They call them "cots" because it implies comfort, but the devices to carry the patient to the ambo, clips in, scissor-folds up and down are actually "ambulance litters".
 
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Sassafras

Forum Captain
474
0
16
We call them litters and the vehicles rig normally. Truck second most common and bus for when we are being silly.
 

ZombieEMT

Chief Medical Zombie
Premium Member
375
28
28
Generally we call it a stretcher, not often does someone refer to it as something different. We typically call our ambulance, an ambulance and that is how our county requires us to recognize ourselves on the radio. It as against protocol in our agency to refer to a ambulance as a bus, because a bus can be used as an actual resource, but it does commonly get called a truck or rig.
 

Sasha

Forum Chief
7,667
11
0
Mr.Brown has already spoken. And he knows everything. It's a stretcher.
 

Pseudonymous

Forum Crew Member
35
0
0
Most people in my area call it a "Litter". And they call the ambulance a "Rig". I'm the only one who calls them a stretcher, and an ambulance.
 
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