Comments on: EMS 2.0: An Inconvenient EMS Truth

By: dmarino3

dmarino3 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:09:02 +0000

First I would like to say you are so funny i nearly wet myself. I have been a Paramedic in upstate NY for the last 3 years at a commercial agency. We get rigorous training with CEVO, and we have not 1 but 2 cameras in our trucks now. We have become better drivers with them. (they also provide alot of humor with the manual triggers) Our instructor thrives on safety. He travels to other agencies through out the states to teach safety. Our mayor has changed our response times from 8min and 59 sec. to a flat 8 min. If we don't make it we have to pay a fine to the city. So here is our dilemma…do we risk our lives to beat the clock, or do we lose it out of our paychecks in the long run?

By: dmarino3

dmarino3 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:09:02 +0000

By: EMTchick

EMTchick — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:58:14 +0000

But I went to school so I COULD DRIVE WITH LIGHT & SIRENS.

By: EMTchick

EMTchick — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:58:14 +0000

But I went to school so I COULD DRIVE WITH LIGHT & SIRENS.

By: Peter B

Peter B — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:09:07 +0000

I just thought that effecting morbidity sounded kind of interesting, and effecting mortality even more so. Makes a great bureaucratic euphemism: Mortality was effected by …

By: Peter B

Peter B — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:09:07 +0000

I just thought that effecting morbidity sounded kind of interesting, and effecting mortality even more so. Makes a great bureaucratic euphemism: Mortality was effected by …

By: Ambulance_Driver

Ambulance_Driver — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:44:34 +0000

Well, I meant that getting there fast may only have the potential to positively affect morbidity – ie, shorter hospital stays or less complications – even if it doesn't make a statistically significant difference in who lives or dies.

And dammit, I missed another one of those affect/effect mistakes. I thought I had caught all of those!

By: Ambulance_Driver

Ambulance_Driver — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:41:12 +0000

That's my point. Many times, those service times are created using the criteria that the administrators of those EMS services feel that the public cares about – never bothering to consider that what the public cares about isn't necessarily a valid criterion.

It's basically a “My response time can beat up your response time,” argument.

By: Peter B

Peter B — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:30:10 +0000

prompt response usually only has the potential to effect morbidity, not mortality

Did you mean that getting there fast only makes them worse but doesn't kill them, or did you mean that it affects morbidity? /spelling snark

Terrific post, though.

By: Ambulance_Driver

Ambulance_Driver — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:44:34 +0000

And dammit, I missed another one of those affect/effect mistakes. I thought I had caught all of those!