medichopeful
Flight RN/Paramedic
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Whats the last thing you stole from a hospital?
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Sasha
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What disposable sheets are you using? They work fine to transfer a patient unless they are gigantic and you are LIFTING not trying to drag them across.
Do you not read well? Read the many other threads AS I STATED IN MY POST for the information. This is ONLY ONE THREAD. Have you NEVER heard of such a thing before? Are you in some sheltered little perfect town in some perfect little one truck ambulance company?
Why are you so concerned about dominion's hospital? What are you trying to start with him now? Do you think that his hospital is so bad it could use an outside consultant? If so, I can definitely refer his management to people who can provide that service. That is not a problem. If he wants to post the name of his hospital and the problems, I'll see what I can do. However, I think the problem for him is not with the hospital but with the ambulance service he works for if you read his posts. Maybe YOU should offer some suggestions to him on how to get his company to do their part in providing the necessary supplies to stock their ambulances.
Do you not understand a thing about how a healthcare business is run? Have you no clue about issues concerning budgets? Why do you think the ambulance companies are not supplying certain items? Are you in some sheltered perfect little world where everyone is paid in lollipops?
Stealing from the hospital
I don't condone taking things from the hospital without their consent. However, at my ambulance service we take blood tube sets to draw labs and linens all with the ER personnel's permission. It shouldn't be a problem if it saves the ER an exra step (drawing labs) or they don't mind if you do it but to take something without asking first is stealing and therefore isn't right. If you need it that bad ask the ER and tell them why you need them. If you really have a logical reason for needing them I'm sure they won't mind.
I don't condone taking things from the hospital without their consent. However, at my ambulance service we take blood tube sets to draw labs and linens all with the ER personnel's permission. It shouldn't be a problem if it saves the ER an exra step (drawing labs) or they don't mind if you do it but to take something without asking first is stealing and therefore isn't right. If you need it that bad ask the ER and tell them why you need them. If you really have a logical reason for needing them I'm sure they won't mind.
In our regoin we set up an agreement with the hospitals that If we used it on the call we can replace it at the hospital. Of course this is not for every little thing, mainly the items used on the majority of calls.
O2 tubing, suction tubing, IV start sets, drips sets, angi-caths, fluids, our drugs boxes, c-collors, ET tubes and suppiles, king airways, BVM all all avalible for exchange, other items upon request.
items like ETOH preps and bandages are NOT avalible
and there is a picture of me draging a PIXIS machine (hold all the drugs for the ER) out of the pedi-er at Roanoke Memorial last night.........but thats becouse of a minor flood...<_<
O2 tubing, suction tubing, IV start sets, drips sets, angi-caths, fluids, our drugs boxes, c-collors, ET tubes and suppiles, king airways, BVM all all avalible for exchange, other items upon request.
items like ETOH preps and bandages are NOT avalible
and there is a picture of me draging a PIXIS machine (hold all the drugs for the ER) out of the pedi-er at Roanoke Memorial last night.........but thats becouse of a minor flood...<_<
I understand the need for that, but it is sad when you can't trust people that much.... I sign out sheet should work just as well......
one of the girls in my medic school said that the hospital had a picis just for the EMS providers...
Sasha
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They actually let you draw labs? Wow. I know a medic who would draw blood tubes for the recieving hospital but they weren't allowed to use them because they weren't drawn by a nurse or tech at the hospital
If the employees would actually SIGN the sign out sheet, it would
I'm guilty of not using our sign out sheets, usually because there's no pen and I wander off to find one and get busy with something else.
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medic417
The Truth Provider
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Some hospitals trust the Paramedics. But sadly many places Paramedics have given them reason not to trust them. Our hospital actually supplies us with everything to make the blood draws.
If the employees would actually SIGN the sign out sheet, it would
Where's that squirrel?
Some disposable sheets are just thin paper and tears if the patient moves. Others will lift anybody a regular hospital sheet will.
Sasha
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Oh I feel so special, I got a reply in red.
I don't think it has anything to do with the paramedics, because the hospital is very stringent with it's blood. Must be labeled immediatly, and if the nurse has to leave the room before sending the blood off it must be left IN the room if it leaves the room they are supposed to redraw it.
The squirrel probably has the darn pen that went with the sheet >:[ Furry little jerk.
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CLIA has very strict rules about the drawing of blood which is now why Phlebotomists are being required to get formal training and certified. Even Paramedics who want to work in the ED must go through a formal Phlebotomy class. Very few Paramedics are taught about the drawing and special handling of the specimens.
The labeling part is also extremely important. The hospital will be treating and held accountable for a misdiagnosis based on that blood. If they treat from a value off blood that has been improperly handled or labeled and discover it was drawn by a Paramedic to whom they have no competency record on file for specimen draws either at the hospital or ambulance service and if they cannot provide any proof of specific training, the lab will be cited severely. There have also been RNs who have put their own licenses on the line by labeling the blood with their signature. At the very least, the RN may have to go back through a remedial phlebotomy course and must have his/her work co-signed for awhile.
Many Paramedics also would prefer not to mess with blood draws which has been in controversey for ETOH field draws.
Tincanfireman
Airfield Operations
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We have a 1:1 swap deal with our hospital; we take a clean sheet from the linen cart, then return it with a patient laying on top of it. All we ask in return is their signature confirming they got their sheet back with a person on it. ^_^ Beyond that, what belongs to them is theirs, and our stuff is ours; never the twain shall meet...
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wyoskibum
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Absolutely nothing!
Stealing is wrong and there is no justification for taking something that isn't yours!
ALL national registry medics are taught to draw labs and cultures. Through a varitiy of meathods (angiocath, stright stick, port=a=cath, and we were even taught to access a dailysis shunt (even though I will probly never use that method
EVERY ALS Pt in this area recives lab draw in the field when ever a IV is established (when ever possible) when a provider fails to do this they get chewed out by their OMD...When ETOH is suspected to be involved we use iodine. Not preforming lab draw is concidered to be just as bad as missing an intubation.
HotelCo
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Funny, I was never taught to draw labs and cultures. Nor do I know of programs in the area that teach it.
You were taught to access a dialysis shunt in the field for a blood sample? Yes, it can be used for an emergent situation when there is not other access. Just remember that is all they have if getting dialysis is what they will need to ease their emergency situation.
No, you might only be taught the basic principles of blood sampling in the average Paramedic program. Few programs even discuss what labs are being done but rather just give an overview of sample tube colors. Hence, when you ask some Paramedics what labs they have drawn they respond with a "red one" but can not say what tests are done with that blood.
The NR does not teach the Paramedics but only administers the exam.
Also, your M.D. might tell you to draw labs but that doesn't mean a hospital has to use them if there is any chance of a discrepancy, bad technique or improper handling of temperature or time sensitive samples.
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Drawing Labs
In Arkansas we are taught to draws labs and what they are for and how to properly handle them. As for time differential we wait to draw them right b4 we arrive at the recieving facility. I don't know about your ER nurses and MD but ours are very grateful for helping them out.
In Arkansas we are taught to draws labs and what they are for and how to properly handle them. As for time differential we wait to draw them right b4 we arrive at the recieving facility. I don't know about your ER nurses and MD but ours are very grateful for helping them out.
Sasha
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Oh poor venty...I have read many of the threads here and like I said, while I could be wrong, I can't recall ever seeing someone talk about stealing supplies from a hospital to stock a personal bag. Nor have I seen any posts from the OP of this thread saying that. Since it appears that you have read posts like that so often...mind sharing? Basically, either put up, or shut up. Aside from that, while I don't doubt that equipment goes missing from hospitals (taken by both EMS and hospital workers) I doubt that "much" goes into personal bags (that's not to say that some doesn't), and honestly, using a few posts from an online forum (if those posts even exist) that represents a minuscule percentage of all EMS workers as your justification for saying that...not smart. Perhaps you shouldn't have tried to use non-existent posts as proof.
I only bring up the hospital dominion mentioned because...well...it was the last example before my original post, and the one I referenced. And really, I don't care about the arrangement; doesn't bother me. Apparently it does bother you greatly though, which is why I'm suggesting that you take your infinite knowledge of all medical things and superior wisdom and discuss with the hospital how terribly wrong they are doing things. Mind if I stop the sarcasm now, it's making me sick. Seriously though, like it or not, the situation dominion listed isn't rare or unusual; either get used to it, stop whining, or do something to fix the problem.
I know more than I ever wanted to about budgets and procurement unfortunately.
VCEMT
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Some ThickenUP packets, little creamers, pain scale chart, and a Japanese nurse.
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