When responding to that 911 call, do you have a pre conceived notion of what the call will be? Do you start to judge and consider certain call types as “BS”? Should we do this and how can we avoid getting that tunnel vision and end up overlooking key clinical presentations? Take a listen and be sure to share your story or insight into this topic below in the comments.
Podcast: Download
Guests:
Tim Noonan – The Rogue Medic
Josh Knapp – WANTYNU
Mark Albert – EMSMedRX
At the end when everyone was discussing the backboard issue, I was disappointed that no one was saying it was because of standing orders from your medical director. I am an EMT-I student that finishes up next week. I believe that we are obligated to follow the “standing orders” unless medical control is contacted and they give us permission to deviate. We are operating under that physician’s license and they have the right to make the call.
You are right that this procedure, intervention, CYA dance is part of many EMS trauma based standing orders or guidelines. I want to point out that we do not encourage operating outside your standing orders and you should indeed follow your local protocols. This week wasn’t really focused on this topic so we did not cover as many aspects as we would have liked. As far as operating under a docs license, well that is up to interpretation as well and I think you would be surprised about the reality of that also. I hope in these discussions to voice opinions that will help promote positive change in EMS for both providers and patients. The next episode is going to focus more on the spinal immobilization topic so be sure to join in. Here is the link – http://www.blogtalkradio.com/emss/2011/06/08/allow-me-to-manipulate-i-mean-immobilize-your-spine