I work for a private ambulance company in LA county and I work 2 24 hr shifts a week. Ive been doing this for 1+ yrs with the same company since I became an EMT. Now Im involved in my first real big problem involving patient abandonment.
On my shift Im just the driver since my partner does not have a license. We received a medical call at around 11 pm going to Downey Regional Medical Center (for my LA county medics, some of us know this can be a death sentece). C/C was a fever, nothing serious. We held the wall for about 2 hrs when we finally received a bed in a hallway, not a room. We transferred out patient, safely secured him and yada yada. In my experience as the driver, I took the gurney back to the rig, cleaned it up, made it nice and packed it away. I even cleaned out the garbage in our rig. I sat in the ambulance because usually when we get a bed, in a hallway or not, my partner is out in 5 minutes or so. Nothing was different in this case. He came out and said we were clear, and off we went.
10 minutes later our GM calls and tells us to clock out and go home, weve been suspended until further notice. we still had about 5 hrs till the end of our shift. my partner called him up and find out what was up, and apparently what had happened was the hospital nurse said we abandoned out patient. we argued it and all that.
when i asked my partner when happened when i went out to the rig, he said the patient was admitted and the hospital began the EKG on him so he took off since the hospital was already rendering care. the nurse however said an EKG was not begun and accused us of abandonment. my partner has been doing this for 7+ years so i did not doubt he know what he was doing.
anyway, to this point, one week later, we are still suspended. our GM and owners are having a meeting as to see what our fate is going to be. my question is was there really any wrong doing? and should I also be at fault? i know were a team, but I dont think I was in the wrong doing at all. leave some comments.
On my shift Im just the driver since my partner does not have a license. We received a medical call at around 11 pm going to Downey Regional Medical Center (for my LA county medics, some of us know this can be a death sentece). C/C was a fever, nothing serious. We held the wall for about 2 hrs when we finally received a bed in a hallway, not a room. We transferred out patient, safely secured him and yada yada. In my experience as the driver, I took the gurney back to the rig, cleaned it up, made it nice and packed it away. I even cleaned out the garbage in our rig. I sat in the ambulance because usually when we get a bed, in a hallway or not, my partner is out in 5 minutes or so. Nothing was different in this case. He came out and said we were clear, and off we went.
10 minutes later our GM calls and tells us to clock out and go home, weve been suspended until further notice. we still had about 5 hrs till the end of our shift. my partner called him up and find out what was up, and apparently what had happened was the hospital nurse said we abandoned out patient. we argued it and all that.
when i asked my partner when happened when i went out to the rig, he said the patient was admitted and the hospital began the EKG on him so he took off since the hospital was already rendering care. the nurse however said an EKG was not begun and accused us of abandonment. my partner has been doing this for 7+ years so i did not doubt he know what he was doing.
anyway, to this point, one week later, we are still suspended. our GM and owners are having a meeting as to see what our fate is going to be. my question is was there really any wrong doing? and should I also be at fault? i know were a team, but I dont think I was in the wrong doing at all. leave some comments.
