Cali Fires

Sorry for the lack of posts guys. There was a fire about a mile from my house, so we had to pack it up and leave for a little bit. Fortunately the winds were calm (which is unusual) and the fire crew was quick to contain it.

I've heard reports that we'll be living with smoke in the air 'til the fall, because there are too many fires for them to contain. Its like stepping out into fog 24/7. I'm not looking forward to living in that til September.

Google fire map. I'm sure everyone already knows about this site - but in case you don't it shows where all the active fires are.

I hope everyone else in CA has stayed safe.

-Update-

I'm still around guys. Just been busy as hell. My mother tore both tendons in her ankle so I've been having to help her out. All the while getting everything ready for class in the fall, and trying to find some ambulance services to get in touch with. So if anyone is still around, I'll try to have a more interesting post in the next couple days.

Lights and Sirens

What happened to people moving out of the way of emergency vehicles? I was driving along a one-lane road earlier, and I see an ambulance coming up behind me, so I pull over as far as I can so it can get by. Then in front of me this dumbass just keeps putting along at god knows how slow. You can’t possibly say that he didn’t hear the air horn or see the blinding strobes behind him. I don’t think Cali EMS light up the christmas tree for transports, so this guy was preventing medics from getting to a critical patient.

Are people really that self-conceited? Do they think they’re more important than the ambulance or fire truck that’s running code 3? Here in California I think its mostly because we have such a high population of illegal immigrants and stupid teenagers that don’t know how to drive. For all they know the ambulance is there to serenade them as they go collect their welfare check.

Maybe if we have a public service announcement during American Idol more people would heed emergency vehicles.

There have been a lot of ambulance related accidents lately, this being one of the most recent. A 60-year-old woman collided with an ambulance. To save you from having to go read the story – she entered the intersection on a green and got plowed. So far the woman is in critical condition, and the driver and another EMT had minor injuries. I believe that there is blame to share on both sides, but I feel it is leaning towards the woman. She had to have heard the sirens, and chose to dart out on the green instead of looking for the EMS vehicle. The ambulance wouldn’t just keep on speeding along if they see someone enter the intersection. I think this also proves that having ambulances yield at red lights is a good idea, which these guys obviously didn’t do. This was a tragic incident that could have been avoided and shows how important it is to be wary of the lights and sirens.

I have a feeling that everyone that doesn’t allow the right-of-way to ambulances would be agreeing with me when it’s their relative in back.

Only in America.

This is a what the fuck rant, not a snazzy medical story, sorry guys.

A woman is suing Victoria's Secret for a defective thong. Somehow a sequin flew off while trying them on and it scratched her cornea. (The lawyer looks like he doesn't know what a cornea is, let alone be old enough to have gone to law school).

So maybe someone can enlighten me as to how the hell she managed to this? I'm guessing she read about Liebeck v. McDonald's and decided to slingshot that sucker into her eye.

Anyways I bet the new mansion bought for her by Victoria's Secret will be a nice upgrade to whatever shes in right now. Welcome to California.

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Why we stop.

Dan over at Emergency Care posed an excellent question at the end of his latest post. “Why do you help? Why do you run in when others won’t?”

This question stemmed from the incident in Connecticut. A man got struck in a hit and run and no one came to his aid.

What makes us different? Why do we choose to help instead of staring like New Yorkers (no offense to any native New Yorkers). The most obvious answer would be that it’s our job. When we’re trained to respond in an emergency, it is our duty to act. We know what to do and its become second nature. I personally have a desire to help people. Perhaps it is just because I’m fresh to the field. Everything is new and exciting, I haven’t become jaded. I also believe most emergency responders are adrenaline junkies. It’s almost a job requirement. We do it for the rush.

The uncertainty of what will be awaiting at a scene also intrigues me. I mean sure, some calls will become repetitive, but the thought of having to sit at a desk doing a “normal” job makes me cringe. I haven’t had the opportunity yet to save a life, but I imagine the feeling is amazing. Thats what will make this job extraordinary, the ability to make a difference.

Now for these people that did nothing - I would like to think that they were frozen in fear. Since they aren’t trained to respond they obviously don’t know what to do. Unfortunately, I think they all stood there gawking and not necessarily from fear. People walked right past without giving him a second thought. Maybe its just me, but I couldn’t just walk past someone that got hit by a car and not attempt to help with or without training. I’d at least call 911. Granted 4 people did call, and were probably some of the ones standing there, but what are the rest of their excuses.

I know this story is a couple weeks old, this was meant to be posted earlier, but I was out of town.

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How was your meal...I mean medical care?

I have a friend that works in a clinic in the rural Midwest. He introduced me to Press Ganey. He absolutely despises it. I had never given it much thought until he mentioned it so I looked it up. What I found was the biggest bunch of bullshit I’ve ever seen. Including the fact that they seem to not have a single MD/DO on staff.

Our Mission – “…to measure and improve their quality of care.”

That mission sounds like a decent and legitimate goal. However, they measure the quality of care by giving out “random” surveys that seem to be mailed out to the non-paying variety and are very similar to the restaurant satisfaction surveys from your local Red Robin. You know the one, how courteous was our staff. Did you get the Demerol that you demanded? How can we improve your next visit? They are giving a patient with absolutely no medical background (and sometimes no common sense), a survey on how they feel their physician treated them. How can anyone justify giving someone like that a survey asking them about the quality of their treatment. They don’t know if the labs were necessary. They don’t know if the meds given were correct. They don’t know if the doctor followed protocol for treatment… oh but that’s right, the survey isn’t judging the medical aspect. I don’t know what I was thinking - evaluating medical care received while in a hospital? Thats just crazy. Instead, its judging trivial aspects of their experience.

Why this fails.

Most patients don’t have a damn clue about the state of healthcare in America. They will bitch about long wait times, while having no clue that ER’s are having a shortage of nurses because the administration is cutting staff to buy a new Beemer instead of hiring the help that is desperately needed.

“The doctors were in a rush and hardly talked to me.” Once again, back to the lovely administration that’s telling them to push through 20 patients a day.

“The waiting room isn’t comfortable.” It’s a hospital not the Marriot. If your major concern is that the chairs weren't La-Z-boy's you obviously aren't in an emergent state and can wait for your primary care doc to see you.

Clearly Press Ganey was the sadistic idea of a drug seeker that has been denied narcotics.

Scenario 1: Assclown walks in with “back pain”. Demands a high dose of a potent narcotic while claiming to be allergic to the weak stuff. He knows the ER he chose to exploit incorporates Press Ganey. ED doc gives in so the Assclown doesn’t give him a bad score ruining his career.

Scenario 2: Same thing, the doctor gives him meds, but the assclown decides to give him a bad score anyways possibly putting the physicians job in jeopardy. Of course they will side with the assclown, because drug-seekers are so trustworthy.

Is it just me, or does it seem like doctors are pretty much screwed.

It also doesn’t take into account the fact that the recipients of the survey may not be literate. They may think it’s a joke. It can’t tell if they are saying a staff member was rude because s/he truly was, or after getting spit/pissed/puked on they decided to return the favor. In other words, the scope of the survey is inadequately narrow and offers the physicians/nurses no effective means of defending themselves.

Now before I get someone tearing me a new one because they have nothing better to do than troll blogs looking for inconsiderate assholes like myself. I know that people actually come into the ER with legitimate pains and ailments. I’m just showing the immense flaws in the Press Ganey system.

I’m also not saying that having some form of patient satisfaction survey is a bad idea, so I’ve devised a new Press Ganey.

Did you survive: Yes___ No___

If you selected “Yes” you should be satisfied.

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I'm a professional rescuer!...Sort of.

So I had to drag my butt out of bed at 7am on a Saturday to go off to my professional rescuer class. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I’m sure I wasn’t imagining a warehouse that looked like it belonged in an old Columbian drug cartel movie. Boxes of who knows what stacked to the ceiling, dust covering everything, and only a lone 20 watt bulb to light the entire room. Well it wasn’t that bad, but our training room was a filthy warehouse. The Red Cross needs some serious funding.

The first thing on our agenda after an hour of videos was to practice removing soiled gloves without contaminating our hands. I was honestly surprised at how many people found this to be a daunting task. I wasted no time in getting them off. Although that was probably because the fake blood (ketchup) expired years ago and had turned brown while giving off an odor that would make formaldehyde a welcome scent. It wouldn’t have been so bad if we did this at the end, but instead we got to smell road kill for 7 hours.

I was wondering why they were only planning on spending 10 minutes on the AED until they brought it out. You would have to be a complete moron to ever screw it up. The pads are labeled with pictures and instructions in two languages. The device itself displays instructions on the tiny screen as well as shouts them at you. It won’t even charge unless it has a potential shockable rhythm (V-Tach/V-Fib). It is definitely an impressive little machine, even if it does looks like Hasbro made it.

Having them label the course “Professional Rescuer” imbues a sense of authority. It makes it sound special. Now as far as I can tell the only differences between the normal CPR class and the Professional Rescuer class is teaching how to take the pulse(yes the manual actually said that), move victims, and use breathing masks of various types - an excellent way to charge $25 more. I know I’m bitching about a trivial amount, but college students don’t have a lot of cash to begin with, and that’s like 6 days worth of food.

Anyways, after taking the class I feel confident that I could sustain a life long enough for some form of advanced care to come and take over if a life or death situation ever came up.

At least now the ball is rolling, even if this wasn’t a very big step.

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Introduction...

I never thought I would jump on the bandwagon and start a blog, but here I am. I feel the time has come to get my two cents out in the open. I will try to keep it medically related, but a political post might sneak in every now and then. In this election year, it is somewhat hard to avoid.

Currently I am working on finishing off my prerequisites for medical school, and obtaining my EMT-B certification. I take my professional rescuer class, a fancy CPR class that costs more, in two weeks. After that I will be able to take the accelerated EMT-basic course.

If anyone ever manages to find their way over to this part of the internet, updates will be coming slowly at first, but bear with me.

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Memorial Day

No matter what your position on the war is, our soldiers deserve our support and respect. Take a moment to thank them for their continuing sacrifice to keep our great nation free. Even if its just raising a glass to them at your family barbeque.

So It Begins

Welcome, more to come soon.