What is busy?

4th of July weekend I did thirty-eight hours, thirty-three calls and one hour sleep. And that was hour thirty-seven -thirty-eight. Our department is set up, like most departments I suspect, to have adequet resourses to meet demand. EMS in the US, and from my friends overseas the UK as well is in limbo. Of the thirty-three responses ten or so qualified as true ALS calls. The others, with one or two exceptions were emergencies only to the people who called and percieved their situation an emergency.

I am frustrated and burned out but still able to bring quality care to my patients. If I leave, they (management, in this case fire department brass with a token EMS chief) will fill my spot with the next body so nothing will be solved, except my own sanity may be preserved.
 
Im sorry but providence runs a good amount of valls but the overall care is poor. I dont know how many times ive seen them have a pt step out of the front seat of the truck holding their own c-spine and have them lay on a backboard (no straps) outside RIH doors....i know its not all of u because u have some great ppl there... but while u try to improve the hrs maybe work on the overall care...EMS in RI is horrible due to theses fire inspired ppl being forced to work EMS for 2 yrs before being put on a engine.... I don't know how many times
ive cringed when prov rolls up with 5 pts in the back of 1 truck when they all should be on LBB due to the moi and just walk right in and sit in a wheel chair....im sorry i hate the complaining by some of prov ppl when the care is so poor.....by the way not directed at u... Like i said i know some great ppl on those trucks and trust me i do know what u deal with out there
 
By the way i think its great ur doing research to better ur department it all starts with a few ppl to change the way a dept functions and to increase the pt care and tighten standards... I just cant stand behind a dept and help the situation if i dont agree with the care level..
 
No worries Piranah, your assessment is sadly accurate.. I think I mentioned earlier on a different thread how the sop lately is cover your *** and get through the shift. Most people on the rescue division actually do care about patient care. There is zero support from administration, zero supervision and zero accountability, unless a patient complains to the state. Surprizingly that has only happened a couple of times since I've been assigned to the rescue. If we treated every person who called 911 as an actual patient we would need 20 rescues rather than 6. 30% of our calls on R-1 are intoxicated people. Treating the same people every day, twice a day as a legitamate CMS or impaired consciousness protocol is simply unrealistic.

In Providence we operate 6 month details into the division. Anybody who wants to stay is welcome to it, I've stayed for about 9 years. I've thrown in the towel, just a matter of weeks before I give it up. Engine 10 is an ALS Engine, the Broad Street Bullies may be getting an old guy really soon!
 
lol..no i hear ya and like i said i do understand the situation and sadly the every day drunks take away from the people who actually need care... It is amazing that our trauma 1 center is the place in this state that almost every drunk goes...newport is the same way,drunks in the ER all day long. but hopefully in time this state will shape up,I won't be here to much longer and if i do it will be prolly more southern RI...but i do tip my hat to you for the types of people u have to deal with day in and day out...
 
My company does between 150,000 and 175,000 calls/year, with 40-45 ambulances--- it works out to 8-10 calls/truck/day. A some of those are 0.3mi transports, others discharges in the city (never more then 5 mi transports), but we also do many long distance calls. Is that busy?
 
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