911 abuse | EMS Office Hours

EMS Abuse and Provider Acceptance

May 8, 2013 by Jim Hoffman 1 Comment

This week Josh Knapp and I revisit the topic of EMS frequent flyers, blatant abuse of 911 and the provider mentality of accepting it as part of the job. Are there ways to treat patients and turn away the 911 players? Does your system have anything in place for these situations and how is it working?

Thanks to John Broyles in the chat room for some great points as well and to Aladtec for sponsoring this episode via EMS Manager. Click here to get a free trial of their EMS employee and management software.

Podcast: Download

Here is the article mentioned by Josh during the show.

Check out Josh’s one and only WANTYNU Oxygen Wrench – click here

Filed Under: The Podcast Tagged With: 911 abuse

Can We Learn From BS EMS Calls?

February 20, 2013 by Jim Hoffman Leave a Comment

The main topic this week was whether or not we can learn from those BS call we get in EMS. The flu’s, the stubbed toe, the frequent flyer. We also talked about refusals and how they relate to these calls as well. While we jumped around a bit, we agreed that while patients are not our guinea pigs or live training models, the BS call can allow us opportunities to assess our patients in a less stressed environment so when that true emergency confronts us we have our own system, our own rhythm of assessment that will keep us on track when the real shit hits the fan.

Take a listen as Josh Knapp and Tim Noonan joined me for this discussion.

Podcast: Download

This episode is sponsored by EMS Manager. Visit them for your free, customized trial of their amazing employee scheduling and management tool. Click here.

Be sure to check out Tims new podcast Rogue Medic Rants.

Filed Under: The Podcast Tagged With: 911 abuse, ems calls

Is Treating To CYA Enabling 911 Abuse?

May 30, 2012 by Jim Hoffman Leave a Comment

Too often we get patients who don’t need an ambulance never mind the care we can give. Call it job security, just part of the job, whatever. But does responding and transporting these “patients” just give them the green light to keep calling 911 for a high priced taxi ride?

People talk. When we start IV’s, give oxygen, do EKG’s on patients who clearly don’t need it and we are doing it to CYA with our QA/QI department or hospital staff. It just sends a message to these people that “hey, last time I called 911 I got all this treatment and was whisked right into the ED”.

Shouldn’t we be treating each patient as needed? Based on assessment and not a protocol? What do you think?

Podcast: Download

Show notes:

Josh Knapp at WANTYNU

Jim on Facebook

Filed Under: The Podcast Tagged With: 911 abuse, ems frequent flyer, ems qa qi, ems transport, paramedic care

EMS Abuse and Provider Acceptance

Can We Learn From BS EMS Calls?

Is Treating To CYA Enabling 911 Abuse?

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