One thing that many people ask, or wonder is why do the ambulances just sit around random parking lots or behind random buildings.
Ambulances are posted (or told to sit) to specific areas. The reason behind this is the ambulances need to keep their response times down. You do not want to call 911 for an emergency and it takes 45 minutes to an hour for an ambulance to get to your location. We like to hide behind buildings to prevent walk ups.
Walk ups?
A walk up is someone that sees an ambulance sitting somewhere and literally walks up to the crew. People usually want their vitals checked or they say they are having some chest pain. The reason we do not like walks up because if we are checking someone in the back of our ambulance, what do we do when we get an emergency call while we are doing the vitals on a person who walked up. Do I tell dispatch I cannot take this emergency call, or do I kick the person out of the ambulance?
Why does a single crew never stay in the same ambulance and why do they never use the truck number as their unit number?
Surprisingly people like to listen to radio traffic. For the company I work for we use a silent dispatching system. Meaning that the important information comes over a tablet and that way anyone listening to our radios will not hear anything important about the call. Our crews do not use their truck numbers or the same truck (crews change trucks every shift) so that way angry family members, patients, or people will have hard time finding a specific crew.
Choice of hospital versus not having a choice?
Sometimes patients get a choice of which hospital they want to go to and other times they do not get a choice. It all depends on what is found when we check you out. If something is life threatening or you are going to lose a limb then we must transport you to the closest, most appropriate hospital. If it is something that non-life threatening or minor, then we can transport you to the hospital of your choice.
How long are your shifts and where do you sleep?
Shifts range from as little as 6 hours all the way to 24 hours. Not all shifts are on the ambulance/road. We do special events also; which is working events like concerts, festivals, sporting events, parades, or any other event that we are needed to supply medical support. If we work on the ambulance for 24 hours some companies will have sleeping quarters at the station for the crews. Some crews just sleep inside the ambulance.
Let me know if there is anything you want to know about EMS!
For questions or comments post below.
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