How many firemen/paramedics does it take..

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Billinsd

WKR
Joined
Aug 25, 2015
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I'm at my doctor's office. About 8 firemen/paramedics/ambulance drivers walk into the office and into the back? Monte Python comes to mind. After a whole an elderly man is wheeled out of the office in a wheel chair. I asked my medical assistant, wow that was crazy. She said it's protocal. I've seen this for about ten years. I don't know if there was a ladder truck or two parked outside. Howver, I did not hear any helicopters. It's ridiculous. I'm in San Diego, is this country wide?
 
Any task performed by government employees usually takes 2-3x the number of people it would take if the task was performed by private enterprise.
 
So your saying some old guy had a medical event at the doctors office and they called the paramedics?

Seams reasonable to me for them to call for support for an event they aren't equipped to deal with. Seems the logical path to both deal with insurance issues and get the individual to the Hospital where they can receive the care they need.

Or maybe you're implying something other than what I gathered from your post.......
 
dieselchessy said:
So your saying some old guy had a medical event at the doctors office and they called the paramedics?

Seams reasonable to me for them to call for support for an event they aren't equipped to deal with. Seems the logical path to both deal with insurance issues and get the individual to the Hospital where they can receive the care they need.

Or maybe you're implying something other than what I gathered from your post.......
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Right, Paramedics were needed. However, I don't think they needed 8 or so. 2 or 3 should have been fine.
 
Any time an ambulance is called, a fire truck is right there with them. Its common practice. Since our first responders cannot see the future, they come with the appropriate number of people to handle most situations. Two minimum for a ambulance crew and 4 is pretty common on a fire truck.

If you or your family were in a medical emergency would you rather they send to few or to many people to help?
 
I agree, I am a retired fire fighter/paramedic, Ems Chief. Run cards dictate responses. 2-3 on a ambulance and 3-4 in an engine. For an outsider sounds like overkill, but believe me it’s not. Lifting and moving and stabilizing a patient is a lot easier with extra hands. The engine usually just helps stabilize a patients then becomes available for other responses. Responding to a doctors office is not uncommon, they are usually not equipped to handle emergencies and know when a patient needs to be transferred to an ER.
 
Depends on the city and if fire and ems run out of the same dept. We run a combination fire department and the ambulance is private. We don’t assist the ambulance unless we are paged and that’s only for car accidents and fires. We occasionally help with patients when the ems crew needs it. Think large patients. Up in SLC fire and ems may run together. It is odd seeing a tiller and an ambulance pull up for a medical call.
 
Billinsd said:
I'm at my doctor's office. About 8 firemen/paramedics/ambulance drivers walk into the office and into the back? Monte Python comes to mind. After a whole an elderly man is wheeled out of the office in a wheel chair. I asked my medical assistant, wow that was crazy. She said it's protocal. I've seen this for about ten years. I don't know if there was a ladder truck or two parked outside. Howver, I did not hear any helicopters. It's ridiculous. I'm in San Diego, is this country wide?
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It absolutely does, I’ll explain why soon. In a class right now.


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Our city has a fire department, and the ambulance works for the hospital, so is private. All of the firefighters are EMTs, and respond to all medical calls along with the ambulance. We have 14 stations for the fire department and 3 for the ambulance, so the fire crews usually arrive first, take incident command, triage and administer initial basic life support care. Once the ambulance shows up, the firefighters assist with packaging and lifting (assuming no extrication is needed, or they also do that).

In a doctor's office, it seems like a lot. In a 3 car accident with ejections and people pinned, it's hardly enough.
 
Doctor doesn't want to get sued so he summons and ambulance to take to hospital.

Ambulance doesn't want to get sued so they send more than enough people

ER doc knows nothing about patient so he orders every test under the sun cause he doesn't want to get sued

The times of the doctor handling his business in house (or yours) are long gone
 
gumbl3 said:
Doctor doesn't want to get sued so he summons and ambulance to take to hospital.

Ambulance doesn't want to get sued so they send more than enough people

ER doc knows nothing about patient so he orders every test under the sun cause he doesn't want to get sued

The times of the doctor handling his business in house (or yours) are long gone
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This is the unfortunate truth. I worked a snow removal job for a University and we use to say we can spend the money in fuel and man hours to clear 1/4 inch of snow or we can lose it in a lawsuit.
 
Maybe it was 2 EMT crews, because one was getting trained? I hope so. What struck me is they rolled the guy out in a wheel chair, not a stretcher. I can see 2 or 3 paramedics and a couple Ambulance drivers, absolutely. But beyond that. My friend is a paramedic in town, I can ask him. He said our fire department is real liberal and bad, though. He'd like to move out of California.
 
Not totally uncommon. In my dept, 33 of our 37 engine are ALS, advanced life support, which means we have at least one paramedic on the engine and a minimum staffing of 4 personnel total on that engine. We carry all the same drugs and medical equipment as the ambulance, we just don't do transport. Our ambulance service is a private company. A fire department rig is sent on any medical emergency in our city. About the only thing we don't get sent on are known non emergency transports, and a lot of times we end up going on those for lift assistance after the ambulance crew gets on scene and finds out they cant transfer the PT from their bed to the cot without some help.

Now why there were 8 firemen there.... any number of reasons. The company who's first in district the call was in my have been on another call when that one was dispatched, cleared off the other call and headed that way and got there at the same time as the dispatched rig. They could have been doing an intercompany training that would be delayed until the rig sent on the ride returned, so the other company just decided to tag along but still in service/available for any other call that dropped in the area. One of the rigs may have been out of the station and thought they were closer and headed that direction as well. Lots of possibilites. Is 8 normal, no, but 3-5 yes.
 
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We run 4 guys on our engines and heavy rescue and provide paramedic level care. Our third party ambulance transport service generally runs 2 per ambulance, but as one of the busiest ambulance services in the country, they constantly train a staff of rotating personnel to include students and military personnel receiving paramedic level training. Not uncommon for us to see 3-4 guys per ambulance arrive on scene.

We respond to several Dr’s offices in our city and when they dispatch for a possible cardiac arrest you’ll get 2 fire apparatus (each containing 4 guys) and an ambulance (containing 2-4 guys). Up to 12 responders if fully staffed to maximum.

Overkill? Possibly. But with a return of spontaneous circulation (getting a pulse back and walking out of the hospital) rate at 33% (2nd highest in the country behind Seattle) I’d say it’s a perfect number of medical professionals responding.


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Are you really concerned about the number of responders? Would you rather they send 2, and upon arrival summon more help? What if your wife or your kid was having a medical emergency and only 2 first responders showed, only to have to call for more help..... What if in that time waiting for help you wife or your kid died? I cant believe anyone is questioning this, come on man.

This post reminds me of people bitching/questioning the Police too. If you think you know better, how about you become a first responder. There's plenty of openings! Under paid and under appreciated.
 
ss13 said:
Are you really concerned about the number of responders? Would you rather they send 2, and upon arrival summon more help? What if your wife or your kid was having a medical emergency and only 2 first responders showed, only to have to call for more help..... What if in that time waiting for help you wife or your kid died? I cant believe anyone is questioning this, come on man.

This post reminds me of people bitching/questioning the Police too. If you think you know better, how about you become a first responder. There's plenty of openings! Under paid and under appreciated.
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That's pure gold what you wrote.
 
mrbillbrown said:
We run 4 guys on our engines and heavy rescue and provide paramedic level care. Our third party ambulance transport service generally runs 2 per ambulance, but as one of the busiest ambulance services in the country, they constantly train a staff of rotating personnel to include students and military personnel receiving paramedic level training. Not uncommon for us to see 3-4 guys per ambulance arrive on scene.

We respond to several Dr’s offices in our city and when they dispatch for a possible cardiac arrest you’ll get 2 fire apparatus (each containing 4 guys) and an ambulance (containing 2-4 guys). Up to 12 responders if fully staffed to maximum.

Overkill? Possibly. But with a return of spontaneous circulation (getting a pulse back and walking out of the hospital) rate at 33% (2nd highest in the country behind Seattle) I’d say it’s a perfect number of medical professionals responding.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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OK, if 12 guys show up wouldn't some leave, seeing 3 or 4 got it covered? What about if someone across town needs help and there are 12 paramedics in an apartment or small doctors office? Seems like Monty Python and the machine that goes ping. How many firemen can actually work on a person at one time or do they rotate?
 
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