dr-exmedic.com

Imagine an ambulance service with 3 ambulances and a response vehicle.  Imagine two of the ambulances breaking down–it was a bad couple of years for Ford and I hear there’s a class-action lawsuit regarding that particular batch of F-350s–leaving the service with one ambulance, enough equipment to run two additional ambulances, and that response vehicle.

What’s the right thing to do?  Load up the response vehicle with all the ALS equipment, of course, so that the extra medic sitting around can respond to emergencies when the full crew is already out.

In PA, of course, the law hasn’t quite caught up with that.  Because said response vehicle isn’t licensed as an ALS response vehicle, it can only have basic life support equipment inside.  On a normal basis, this is fine, as it normally sits in the back of the garage doing nothing.  Today, under these very unusual circumstances, this meant that I had to haul out the drug box I’d put in this morning.  My boss was even kind enough to point out that using the advanced airway kit or IV supplies left behind (since it didn’t make sense to tear apart the first in bag) would also be breaking the law.  We left the cardiac monitor in; we didn’t discuss it, but I’m probably supposed to only use that in AED mode.

Filed under: EMS