O.K. all my E.R. brethren, I have what I believe is the absolute, hands down, no competition, circumstance of EMS Abuse, I have ever seen in 20++ years experience in E.R. Recently I was working a medium sized E.R. in rural Georgia. 7p-7a shift, atapproximately 11:30p an ambulance arrived with a male patient
who while walking the streets at night, fell into an open "manhole" apparently unmarked. He didn't fall to the bottom due to quick thinking on his part, he held his arms out away from his body, thereby catching himself before this disaster
was possibly compounded by a twelve foot vertical fall. He was not the abuser of EMS system, the twenty something male patient in the next ambulance was.
This guy had witnessed, the fall and also witnessed EMS picking
up the aforementioned patient. He was hitch-hicking/walking to his girlfriends house. Well a lightbulb must have switched "On"
because he then proceeded to call EMS to come and take him to E.R., Complaint; he was walking and got "Short of breath"
apparently this E.R. was closer to his girlfriends house. He didn't even bother to Register, he went immediately to the telephone,
(Provided Free in E.R. waiting room) and called her to come for him. Now I ask you can you top this? :eek: :eek: :(
I totally agree with all of the above. I work in large inner city hospital in midwest and see the abusers so often, it makes me sick. Some of them never get past triage - the wait is too long, there isn't a cart to lay down on, etc.. Oh well, you can't meet everyone's needs.
On a very, very busy day, the wait for non emergent players was about 2-3 hours. After seeing many ambulances drop off pts, someone in he waiting room called 911 from the pay phone so the ambulance would come pick up her up and she could go right back. NOT.
The 911 operator called the hospital operator. the hosptial operator called me, so i could go out tothe pay phones to see what was going on....
We had a good one last night,the fire department brought in a 23 y/o female hysterical and crying and wailing so loudly nobody wanted to go and see what was wrong.
She got stopped for speeding,became hysterical so the officer sent her in to us.Her chief complaint"My tounge is black"
We took a washcloth washed her tongue and it came off.
Diagnoses was PEPTOBISMAL INGESTION.
she left before the police got there to give her a ticket.
Specializes in ER, NICU, NSY and some other stuff.
My husband is a paramedic, he presently works at the 911 medical dispatch. I was visiting him at work one night when he got a call from a pay phone at a convenience store. Patient wnated transposrted for a toothache. Just as he thought he was wrapping the call up the caller clarified that she wanted the ambulance to pick her up at her home and gove her home address. She stated she did not have a phone and her husband had DRIVEN her to the store to place the call. He then proceeded to ride along with her in the truck to the hospital. Then of course requested a cab pass to get back home after. I know because she went to my ER.
Our hospital disabled 911 access from the payphones in the ER waiting room.
Specializes in ER, NICU, NSY and some other stuff.
Oh and I nearly forgot another one of my all time favorites. We had a guy come in by ambulance one morning for back pain. He had been off work for a back injury. He showed back up to work on this morning without a doctor's release. He was told by his supervisor that he could not return with it. He then went out to his car got on the cell phone and called an ambulance to transport him to the ER for a work release.
What made this all the worse was that there were only 5 trucks available for our whole city that morning and we were still waiting on our 0600 chest pain.
Specializes in ER, NICU, NSY and some other stuff.
Originally posted by mdslabod
I am beginning to think that it should be made a
a law that EMS misuse is punishable by fine or jailtime.
MDS
We could only wish, or that they could jus No Haul these jokers. I know that the contract my husband's service has with the city if someone wants to be hauled they must haul them. To fine them would be to assume that they were even going to pay the cost of the ambulance ride. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Ok----picture this-----Group home patient in her 20's (there for mental health problems). Came in early in the day via 911 for toothache--treated, given Rx. Was discharged at 1330.
At 2330 patient arrived again via 911 because they didn't get her perscriptions filled and she needed something for pain.
This patient is a "walkie,talkie". Called group home to come get her at 0130-----"She came in an ambo send her home in one" Explained inappropriateness of this request including inappropriateness of originally sending pt via 911. "Send her home in a cab" Explained cabs weren't running at present and that they needed to come pick-up this poor girl and get her the medicines perscribed.
It's now 0500, She is still sitting in the waiting room waiting for a ride.
Gee---Wonder if I'll report this one to DSS as neglect of a vernable adult-----you betcha.
We have three ER physicians that will just come out and tell these kind of patients that the ambulance ride was not neccessary and that they can cause harm to someone else if they really needed the EMS and they were tied up with a call like yours. Then they don't sign the EMS certification of need...
It happens everywhere - note News report from the UK:-
Anthony Browne, health editor
Sunday November 4, 2001
The Observer
People will no longer have an automatic right to an ambulance when they dial 999, as part of government plans to deal with time-wasters and the explosion in demand for the service.
People who phone up are to be assessed quickly by operators, and ambulances will be sent only to those considered to be in genuine medical need. Others will either be passed on to the NHS Direct helpline, told to see their GP or a chemist, or put in touch with social services.
Ministers and health authorities have become alarmed as demand for ambulances has almost doubled in the past decade - calls rose by 6 per cent last year to 4.4 million. Yet a growing number of calls are from people abusing the service, which means that it takes longer to respond to genuine emergencies.
A Norwich pensioner, Dina Pascoe-Stevens, was exposed last week for having called for an ambulance 40 times in one month - her 'emergencies' ranged from needing milk from the fridge to shopping for groceries. Paramedics from Sussex Ambulance Service were recently summoned by a woman who wanted her orange peeled.
Many ambulance drivers joke that they should be called '999 cabs' because so many people use them as a free taxi service. Paramedics are annoyed that the most common jobs on Friday and Saturday nights are calls from people who live near hospitals phoning for an ambulance for a ride home. A fully kitted ambulance costs about £250,000, and each journey costs the NHS about £115.
More than 70 per cent of people taken by ambulance to hospital have so little wrong with them that they are discharged without any treatment. But paramedics say many who get treatment could have made their own way to hospital. One said: 'Out of 20 calls I do in a day, I reckon there's only one where we need an ambulance.'
To combat the problem, computer software is being developed to help operators to send out ambulances more appropriately. Callers not in obvious distress will be asked a series of questions, enabling operators to determine within one minute if an ambulance should be sent.
People have no legal right to an ambulance, but ambulance services automatically send one if people ask for it, and they take all callers to the nearest A&E hospital. More than 30 ambulance services have introduced prioritisation systems to distinguish genuine emergencies - such as heart attacks - from those where time is less critical, but the computer software they currrently use does not enable operators to divert the call and stand down the ambulance.
...and then, there was the lady who tried to break
up a fight between two dogs at 3 in the morning.
One of the dogs tore her arm open. without thinking, this lady wrapped her arm in a towel and drove herself to the ER. We sewed up her arm and she drove herself home.
Goes to show ya...for every one that abuses the system, there is one who does not.
:eek: 
:(
traumaRUs, MSN, APRN
87 Articles; 21,288 Posts
I totally agree with all of the above. I work in large inner city hospital in midwest and see the abusers so often, it makes me sick. Some of them never get past triage - the wait is too long, there isn't a cart to lay down on, etc.. Oh well, you can't meet everyone's needs.