Speak out against triage?

[PapaBear434]

When I get off shift in the morning, I'll find the policy and post it up here. Too tired to dig through Sentara's policy or state law statutes right now. Just a quick clarification:

The doctor is NOT a live in Doc. It's a rotating staff, like any other. This place is run by Sentara, and it's a huge complex that takes up two square miles. Some areas are assisted living, some are monitors living, and some are actual in patient, hospital-like wards that take care of the most sick and disabled. And they have their own staff that works there.

I don't mind getting called to the assisted living, or monitored living quarters. In those cases, yes, a nurse may cover 30+ patients. But those aren't the patients I'm talking about. It's the folks in the hospital area.

During the day, it's fine. They have plenty of Docs on hand, and we rarely get a BS call then. But at night, each floor is covered by one Doc who is on call. They have a room they can crash in, which is way nicer than any bunk room I've ever seen. But, they went through 8-12 years of school, so I suppose they have earned the decorative pillows and mini-fridge.

I don't know why you guys are ragging on me for being anti-lazy and anti-incompetent. The nurses and doctors doing their jobs are great. All the love in the world to them. But the morons that sit there reading the paper and calling because the doc doesn't feel like putting on his pants deserve nothing but derision.

 

[PapaBear434]

This is the result of our EMT schools pumping their students heads full of lies. They spend a whole 120 hours convincing them that they're going to be living heroic, exciting, and glamorous professional lives full of blood and guts, extricating victims, healing their trauma, and curing their cardiac arrest with a couple minutes of CPR. Instead, the only extrications that most of them ever do is from a nursing home bed. They heal nothing. They cure nothing. They just sit and stare at people for fifteen minute ambulance rides, not really knowing what is going on. Consequently, they are very quickly disillusioned and cop a bad attitude, taking the frustration of their poor career choice out on their patients and the actual medical professionals who are making twice what the EMT is getting paid. It's hard to imagine that anyone is still surprised by this.

Yep. Hate my wife with such a seething passion, because she makes so much more money and gets more respect than me.

I know where I am on the medical totem. I have no problem with that. I serve a purpose, and I'm ok with that. But if you want to aspire to get that increased pay and responsibility, you should probably actually do the job assigned to you. I am sure you and Rid would not abide one of your peers or one of your subordinates passing every buck that comes down their pike. All I am asking is for them to do their job, not act like I am putting them out of their way by asking for a med list.

 

[VentMedic]

When I get off shift in the morning, I'll find the policy and post it up here. Too tired to dig through Sentara's policy or state law statutes right now. Just a quick clarification:

The doctor is NOT a live in Doc. It's a rotating staff, like any other. This place is run by Sentara, and it's a huge complex that takes up two square miles. Some areas are assisted living, some are monitors living, and some are actual in patient, hospital-like wards that take care of the most sick and disabled. And they have their own staff that works there.

I don't mind getting called to the assisted living, or monitored living quarters. In those cases, yes, a nurse may cover 30+ patients. But those aren't the patients I'm talking about. It's the folks in the hospital area.

During the day, it's fine. They have plenty of Docs on hand, and we rarely get a BS call then. But at night, each floor is covered by one Doc who is on call. They have a room they can crash in, which is way nicer than any bunk room I've ever seen. But, they went through 8-12 years of school, so I suppose they have earned the decorative pillows and mini-fridge.

I don't know why you guys are ragging on me for being anti-lazy and anti-incompetent. The nurses and doctors doing their jobs are great. All the love in the world to them. But the morons that sit there reading the paper and calling because the doc doesn't feel like putting on his pants deserve nothing but derision.

Better yet, just give me a link or PM me the telephone number of a nursing home that has 24 hour inhouse doctor coverage. Is this part of a hospital? Our SNF is within our facility so it has access to one of the hospital doctors but even then the patient may be transferred back to the hospital part. The only thing having a doctor inhouse does is get the patient transferred faster with more orders. You must understand patient acuity and what nursing homes are licensed to do. They can not initiate or run nitro drip or most other IVs except maybe antibiotics. Thus, the patient MUST be moved to a higher level of care. Maybe if I described in terms of an EMT calling a Paramedic for their patient you might understand some of this.

 

[VentMedic]

Nevermind. I found the company you are talking about. It owns several hospitals which are nearby as well as various levels of facilities all woven into one. This is a totally different situation when a nursing home patient has immediate access to a hospital next or with the facility. That is like my hospital which has a SNF, Rehab and subacute. But, that is not a true representation of free standing nursing homes.

 

[Ridryder911]

This is the result of our EMT schools pumping their students heads full of lies. They spend a whole 120 hours convincing them that they're going to be living heroic, exciting, and glamorous professional lives full of blood and guts, extricating victims, healing their trauma, and curing their cardiac arrest with a couple minutes of CPR. Instead, the only extrications that most of them ever do is from a nursing home bed. They heal nothing. They cure nothing. They just sit and stare at people for fifteen minute ambulance rides, not really knowing what is going on. Consequently, they are very quickly disillusioned and cop a bad attitude, taking the frustration of their poor career choice out on their patients and the actual medical professionals who are making twice what the EMT is getting paid. It's hard to imagine that anyone is still surprised by this.

This should be posted in the first chapter of every EMT Text book, with a test and them signing a contract that they fully understood this. Then again tested in full at the end of the course.

R/r911

 

[PapaBear434]

Nevermind. I found the company you are talking about. It owns several hospitals which are nearby as well as various levels of facilities all woven into one. This is a totally different situation when a nursing home patient has immediate access to a hospital next or with the facility. That is like my hospital which has a SNF, Rehab and subacute. But, that is not a true representation of free standing nursing homes.

Yeah, I know it's not the usual situation. But we have numerous other nursing home areas that ARE like the ones you were thinking of.

I'll admit to everyone here that I am generalizing quite a bit. I had a bad day with four of those calls I was railing on within five hours, and I was venting. Same nurse twice, and she looked up from her book only once to look up where the patient was.

Better pour it out on a random internet forum than in real life on some patient or nurse, but I feel that I owe you guys an apology all the same.

As far as Sentara goes... They are evil. They own all but one hospital in the area, almost all the acute care facilities, and likely have their hands in anything medical related in the area. Seriously, if it wasn't for the military being so big in the area, they'd have a total monopoly.

 

[PapaBear434]

This should be posted in the first chapter of every EMT Text book, with a test and them signing a contract that they fully understood this. Then again tested in full at the end of the course.

R/r911

I was in the police department previous to this. Trust me, I got over my naivete about the guts and glory of emergency work long ago. 95% of that job was paperwork.

 

[Ridryder911]

I was in the police department previous to this. Trust me, I got over my naivete about the guts and glory of emergency work long ago. 95% of that job was paperwork.

Something that should be added to the paragraph, the amount of paperwork and the realism is that it is a job. Administrators and others depend upon you to be thorough enough in your paperwork and knowledge to prevent litigation's and to be able to receive compensation. So yes, others depend upon you.

R/r 911

 

[PapaBear434]

Something that should be added to the paragraph, the amount of paperwork and the realism is that it is a job. Administrators and others depend upon you to be thorough enough in your paperwork and knowledge to prevent litigation's and to be able to receive compensation. So yes, others depend upon you.

R/r 911

To make it more accurate, they should make that paragraph fifteen pages long, with lots of charts and check boxes to fill out, and don't forget to press REALLY hard to get through all six carbon-pages.