Welcome to EMS Rants!

16 May, 2012 at 6:28 pm
17 votes, 4.29 avg. rating (85% score)

Finally, a place you can vent without fear of being exposed, losing your job, being ridiculed by your peers, or getting angry phone calls by your neighbors!

We’ll have our rules & regs posted shortly, as well as how the system works, and other important stuff you need to know.

And yes, this site is owned by someone in EMS who truly ‘gets it’.

If you’re on Twitter (and let’s face it – who isn’t these days?), look for updates from @EMSRants

We’re also on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/EMSRants

Posting is now open to everyone. The only thing submitted is your post; no IP address, no email information, no browser information. Nothing. And all secured using SSL (even the email from the server to the Admin’s Inbox.)

So head on over and GIVE US YOUR RANTS!

We’ll get on it as soon as it arrives.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

#22

11 April, 2013 at 6:23 pm
3 votes, 4.00 avg. rating (81% score)

Why is it that some medics remember where they came from and treat us Basics with a little respect, and other medics are so fucking rude they need to be punched in the testicles?

I get that not all volunteer EMTs are at the level they should be with training, but when you come into the back of MY truck and don’t even bother to ask me what’s going on before you start shouting orders at me, I should be able to smack you with an oxygen bottle. Especially when I don’t even need you in the first place.

If you’re a medic and reading this, remember where you came from!!

Filed Under: They Just Don't Get It

#21

30 January, 2013 at 11:53 am
1 vote, 4.00 avg. rating (82% score)

I get aggravated with bystanders and nosy people who are not onscene! I’ve had bystanders get mad at me, because I ask them to move and let me get the stretcher to the patient! Or go to a residence, and half the neighborhood comes out to watch! I went to one call where we couldn’t get to the call because of the hoards of people running down the street to our destination! And one bystander was heard to say on her phone that she couldn’t see what was going on because all these people were in the way! The people she was referring to were the responders! Providing patient care! And speaking of phones, it is so annoying to be somewhere, and be trying to gather information, but the patient or family member is on the phone. Sometimes it is people not onscene calling to see what is going on! Really?! I want to yell at them “Is your knowing what is going on more important than this person getting the care they need?” I worked a wreck where the patient’s cell phone kept ringing, and I finally answered it, and told the caller that the person was not available. They cursed me, asking who I was, but calmed down when I told them that I was the EMT taking care of the phone’s owner.

Filed Under: Say What?!?, They Just Don't Get It

#20

19 September, 2012 at 10:03 pm
1 vote, 4.00 avg. rating (82% score)

I get that I work for the bastard redheaded child of EMS, but…

You could at least provide your employees with toilet paper. It’s just sad when I have to stalk fast food restaurants for napkins.

Filed Under: Say What?!?

#19

19 September, 2012 at 9:08 pm
2 votes, 1.00 avg. rating (41% score)

My GOD, people… Those of you who choose to spew your BS to anyone who will listen and throw your coworkers under the bus just to make yourself look better need to take a good long look in the mirror.

IT’S NOT WORKING. IT JUST MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE AN ASS.

Filed Under: Say What?!?, They Just Don't Get It

#18

18 September, 2012 at 12:37 pm
4 votes, 4.75 avg. rating (92% score)

Ok you called for an ambulance, the next step is to unlock your damn door so I’m not standing in the rain with my response bag, oxygen bag, Defib and drugs bag ringing the door bell..

Filed Under: They Just Don't Get It

#17

24 July, 2012 at 9:14 pm
3 votes, 4.00 avg. rating (81% score)

This one is simple. Our PSAPs EMD, at least in theory. Some, somewhere between the caller and me is supposed to ask a few questions and determine what is going on so the proper resources are sent.

So why do I keep getting dispatched to unknown medical aids?

Better yet is the “meet the police.”. There’s a man with a radio on scene. Will someone please take a second to ask him WHY he wants an ambulance?

Filed Under: Uncategorized

#16

14 June, 2012 at 8:41 pm
13 votes, 4.31 avg. rating (86% score)

Stop bitching about people on Medicaid. They have just as much of a right to medical care, either via ambulance or in the emergency department, as people who private-pay for their insurance or get it through their employers. Stop talking about how “we’re paying for their medical care.” In case you haven’t noticed, “we” pay for EVERYONE’S medical care. Our system isn’t perfect, but have you ever stopped to consider that we’ve spent the past 40 years and billions of dollars on public education in this country teaching people to call 911 for a medical emergency but ZERO dollars on teaching that same public exactly what is (and more importantly, is not) a medical emergency? We live in a litigious society, and it sucks that we can’t tell the person who’s vomiting that they don’t need an ambulance because that person just might have a life threatening condition. Why is it that we have not seized the opportunities to educate people that vomiting is no big deal? That a fever in a child isn’t something to be afraid of unless it goes above a certain point? That being lonely isn’t a medical emergency? Instead, you bitch about those on Medicaid, many of whom have NO OTHER OPTION but to visit the ER because too many doctors won’t accept any more Medicaid patients. It’s a matter of ACCESS and EDUCATION, not a matter of whose tax dollars are being spent on what. You bitch about providing the poor with a chance to see a doctor but have little to say about the CEOs of Aetna and United Health Care and BCBS who make literally BILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year in salary making health insurance so damned expensive but pay little in taxes. Get your head on straight. We’re medical professionals, and that means we serve ALL people, equally, without passion or prejudice, and without regard to their ability to pay. If you want to bitch about the poor, go work in some other business and get the HELL out of my profession! Last I checked, we were supposed to help people.

Filed Under: EMS 2.0, EMS As Primary Care, They Just Don't Get It

#15

7 June, 2012 at 4:30 pm
4 votes, 4.50 avg. rating (88% score)

If you’re that concerned…..

How many times have you been dispatched to a man down or an “arrest” when it was just someone sleeping?  The person slumped over the wheel who was just taking a nap?  All these calls are generated by cell phone heros who are so concerned that they will call 911… But keep driving or walking.  If you are so concerned why not knock on the window?  Call out to the person.  If they really need help they might need it it before the 5-8 minutes it takes us to get there.

Lastly….

I was on a meal break on a busy day. A unit keys up on the radio to report a mid 40′s female slumped over the wheel in truck.  The unit was not transporting, they were moving between posts.  After they make the report to dispatch they continue driving without checking on this woman….. 2 minutes later I am pulled from my meal break to come to this patient’s rescue… With fire…. And police.  The patient had woken up and driven away……

Filed Under: Dispatch Clowns, Say What?!?, They Just Don't Get It

#14

7 June, 2012 at 12:56 am
5 votes, 2.60 avg. rating (57% score)

First off, i’m glad this site is here. Secondly, my rant isn’t a huge thing.

I work 24 hour shifts, 24 on, 24 off in a cycle of 3 on and 4 off. I am currently 18 hours into the last 24 on before my 4 days off and I haven’t had a chance to sleep at all.

It kind of sucks.

There have been plenty of opportunities for me to get back to my nice little station but our dispatch keeps sending the clearing units to the outlying, usually unmanned posts in the sticks. These posts aren’t usually manned unless we have an excess of cars on (a rare, seldom heard of phenomenon). I wouldn’t be complaining if we were running calls. I’m not a lazy EMT; we’ve just been moving from post to post all day being the system status bitch car. No calls at all so far today. I guess I just wish dispatch would stop pissing around and send me back to my station so I don’t have to spend my first day of my very precious four days off sleeping all day.

Filed Under: Dispatch Clowns

#12

26 May, 2012 at 6:01 pm
9 votes, 4.56 avg. rating (90% score)

Dispatched for an allergic reaction to a new medication….

Patient’s solitary symptom is “I’m itchy”.. which by the way, is a documented side effect of the medication. They had a patent airway, lung sounds clear bilat, no swelling, no rash, no hives, vital signs WNL. On arrival, pt immediately refused to be transported to the hospital, but told us that we need to give them some Benadryl for their itch.

The patient lives directly across the street from a CVS.

At any rate, while I was preparing the PO Benadryl, the pt’s daughter (who has a valid driver license) decided that her parent should probably go to the hospital to be evaluated. Ok, no problem. After all, that’s what we’re here for.. right?

So, we waited for them to walk around the house and change their clothes, because they didn’t like what they were wearing, and didn’t want to go out of the house in their shopping clothes.

A few minutes later, we walked them through the driveway past the two shiny new cars (probably full of gas), and into the truck and completed transport.

Can you believe that the ED staff didn’t consider our patient a priority? The patient was livid when they found out that we were wheeling them to the waiting room.

Bah.

Filed Under: Freeloaders, Say What?!?, System Abuse, They Just Don't Get It
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