Everyone Gets an Ambulance
Many years ago, prior to even our careers, a political decision was made to send police to every call. There was no discretion - if you called the police, you got the police. It may have been hours later and the situation more than likely played out already, but eventually, someone would come by.
That appears to be the case with CFD ambulances now, and it's going to (if it hasn't already) going to cost lives at some point:
- That’s exactly what Chicago is dealing with. 80% of what these
ambulances are responding to are less than BLS they are literally Boy
Scout first aid matters and of course mostly coming from “the
community”. That’s a fact. Let me tell you a few events that they go
to…
- arm sore from new tattoo
- scratched by a cat
- cut face shaving
- had a bad dream wants to be checked out
- needs std check
- needs pregnancy test
- hiccups x one hour
- new belly button piercing bleeding
- man on corner whistling at birds
I’m not making this up this is what our ambulances are tied up on all day long but it’s what CFD wants it’s what their second in command wants made it clear every caller no matter what gets an ambulance no questions asked.
As a result? Half the tower ladders are broken and out of service, up to 10 companies a day downgraded from ALS to BLS, more and more medics laying up on the medical or leaving for another competitive agency, current medics exhausted and severely burnt out and nobody fresh out of paramedic school applying for Chicago
And there have been a few comments that say call-takers on the fire side aren't allowed to "triage" these nonsense calls to keep ambulances up and running for serious medical issues.
Labels: fire
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
52 Comments:
"had a bad dream wants to be checked out"
---
SHIT.. I'd be calling 911 everyday of my fuckin' life if that was me.
It’s the “cradle to grave” mentality.
A certain segment of society is practically helpless by all accounts.
Why not go to the ER, or call 911 for everything?
Nothing but the best if you don’t have to pay for it.
Draining the city dry, and using faaaaar more resources than they contribute.
Takers. Leeches. Parasites.
It’s getting old, and the people with common sense are waking up and leaving this shithole.
My two favorites from 24 are, “ I have a bad cold and fever and called 911 for ambulance for ride to hospital because I didn’t want to lose my parking spot.” And “I just wanted my temperature taken so I called for an ambulance.”
And unrelated, remember the 911 call about ten years ago when some lady thought a squirrel that was in middle of street and she thought it was trying to kill itself? That was a classic
Welcome to Shit-cago!
But then, back in the day, a-lot of bullshit 911 calls to the police were triaged by the PO's working the Zone. Many dispatch cards were taken home and deposited (probably at the Bar) by our COS specialists. This worked for the most part, with exceptions that always occur. You can't have a system that relies on believing it won't be abused by it's "customers" that survives rationally. It has to operate on the principal of "calculated risk."
If CFD doesn’t respond to these calls, then CPD will…
OEMC has to dispatch all the calls that come in.
“Many years ago, prior to even our careers, a political decision was made to send police to every call. There was no discretion - if you called the police, you got the police.”
Ah yes! At one time we were supposed to make a hospitalization case as nursing homes were supposed to call for patients who were injured, which was supposed to prevent abuse. One time a nursing home called, I arrived and the nurse said the resident developed boils on their leg and they needed a report.
Another time I get a call, man bleeding in a tavern, fire is not responding. I get there and the bartender says we called, it’s that guy there sitting on a barstool he’s bleeding. So I talked to the drunken mope and said I don’t see any blood. He says he’s bleeding from the rectum and wants to go to the hospital. Now you know why the fire side blew it off to the police side.
Years ago the old COS took every crackpot call and dispatched them with no screening.
Let you expand the mental unit and all its success to get additional training and handle less than bls.
Remember This Dialogue You Old Wagon Men
Would Hear Every Weekend On The 3rd & 1st
Watch: XX72 XX72 , Take The Man Shot In The
Alley, A Man Shot At 1234 South Bozo Street
As Soon As We Get A Beat Car, We’ll Assigned
It. “FIRE NOT GOING “ Then The Wagon Crew
Would Look Each Other, Without Taking The
Cheap Cigars Out Of Their Mouths , Would
Both Mumble Fxxk Those Hose Draggers
M.F.ers, We Took The Wrong Test!!!
If anyone gives a damn about your elderly family members, neighbors and friends hell needs to be raised about this answers need to be demanded if you pay a single tax you should be upset about this. Emergency Medical Services are being suspended and delayed that we pay for with our ever increasing taxes all because of some pandering ideology that even a scratch on the arm needs an ambulance grossly tying up resource.
Allow me to loosely describe an incident involving the wife of a fellow CPD officer recently. Officer comes home. Wife on the floor face planted. History of cardiac. Calls 911. Particular ambulance in said neighborhood was in their quarters as they are known as a “slower” ambulance due to the neighborhood never abusing the 911 system. Medics promptly arrive. CPR initiated and being performed en route to the hospital. Extremely critical with time being of the essence. Rushed into emergency room then into the ICU. Thank God the wife of this Officer is alive. She’s alive due to time and having paramedics available and close to their residence. Had that ambulance not been in quarters and their company not downgraded to BLS where a further ambulance had to be pulled it’s quite possible this Officer would have lost his wife. Do we not understand now? Do we not see how important it is to have our paramedics available and ready for a life threatening emergency and not tied up on concierge Uber services? Do. We. Understand. Now.
But God forbid a caller is denied emergency medical services for itchy skin or a bed bug bite.
Everyone is too afraid of litigation so they believe the answer is to waste waste waste resource to save paying out in a law suit when they won’t think about the money saved by reserving resource for real life threatening emergencies. In my humble opinion this is how you turn it around:
• Revamp how OEMC processes ambulance requests. Allow call takers to Triage thoroughly to determine if the caller will die if prompt medical treatment isn’t applied. If the caller will not due to said criteria then the answer is No then advising an alternate plan for transportation. They aren’t psychics. Let them go off what they’re being told and stop playing the “what if” game. Shouldn’t every caller get a Still/Box response? “What if” a plane falls out of the sky and lands on their home? What if?
• Let requests go in Pending for up to 30 minutes on whichever non life threat slips through the cracks until an ambulance is available. Engines and Trucks don’t need to be sitting on a Psychiatric run or a 18yr old with a cold or a sore ankle.
• Major campaign teaching the public when to and when not to call an ambulance. Make it CPS curriculum if need be. Commericals. Billboards. Whatever needs to be done.
• Assisting civilians is great when grandma falls out of bed without an injury and needs help getting up at 2am but assisting the civilian event is abused by callers who use the trucks or engines up to 6 times a week every week for assistance into a med van for dialysis or doctors appointments. Dept of Human Services needs to devise a plan to mitigate that. Here and there is fine but there’s a dependency on the city for it and it ties up companies.
• Allow and encourage CPD to take the guy on the corner with foot pain in their beat car to the hospital if they’re within a mile and if it’s within reason. Simple batteries. Minor injuries etc. Often it’s quicker than waiting for an ambulance and it will free up CPD availability.
• Citizens and Aldermen demanding change never allowing company downgraded under any circumstances.
• Elimination of constant mandates. It’s a union thing but no more than 2 in a 30 day time period.
Result by Theory: Demand meets the Supply by call volume and jobs CFD are responding to decreased. Less interruption in true medical emergencies and Fires. Less wear and tear on all vehicle apparatus. Less fuel less logistical headaches. Less damage to repair. Medics are more rested and sharper in performance and feeling a better sense of well being. Morale improves across the board. The reputation of the job increases making it a more desirable place to apply to and work. Price is restored. Lay ups and personnel on the medical decreases as immune systems, bodies and minds are healthier.
But that’s crazy talk.
Send the social workers and moderators and whoever else to tend to baby girls wants and needs
When you don't pay for anything everything is easy. You created the problem with your voting democrat for years upon years upon years. What you do now means nothing, you created the mess you're living in now and you can't vote your way out of it....
It’s no different than the ER. Had a leg fracture and sat patiently in the ER in excruciating pain. While I waited, I watched people walk in, “I have a cold I need medicine” , “my son fell off his bike I need his leg cleaned up”, “I ate some taco's now my stomach hurts”. I’m not surprised CFD is going through this, oh and eventually I was seen and my leg taken care of.
This is the strategy to get more ‘community’ hires on the paramedic side. Send them on simple band-aid runs, then they won’t have to use their failing skills on heart attacks, burn victims, shootings, amputations, etc.
start charging their link card and watch how fast they stop calling the wambulance for everything
I like when people call for 911 from their bedside when they drop their TV remote control on the floor, then invent some ailment so a fire company or ambulance can retrieve it for them. I feels better now!
That’s exactly what Chicago is dealing with. 80% of what these ambulances are responding to are less than BLS they are literally Boy Scout first aid matters and of course mostly coming from “the community”. That’s a fact. Let me tell you a few events that they go to…
Catering to the unwashed continues...
I've gotten called for two "F"s on a report card years back. Nothing changes.
Just glad I'm retired and out of Illinois.
Keep fire calls high, justify higher operational budget to get more money.
Simple idea by simpleton mayor.
I was a paramedic in a well-funded, tightly organized metro area fire department for long enough to know I didn't want to do that for a living. The crazy and silly calls were just part of the scenery: needed a ride, craved attention, wanted drugs, spilled coffee on their lap, and the just plain crazy. The reality was only about 10% of calls were true emergencies. When I ran as a volunteer for a rural service area we had a woman who would call the station to see if her favorite medic was on before calling 9-1-1 and putting on her negligee for his arrival.
Retired in Texas……
And what is conehead doing about this…..? He’s the head of the snake.
More concerned with $800 hair cuts, blaming every one else, blm, reparations and adding more bodies to his security detail.
Putz
Watch each others backs out there.
So true but yet brandon says he has "surge ambulances" as scc said before ready for dnc shitshow! where are these hidden? where is staff hidden? maybe he will use some of his 200+ detail (Heard it was increased due to President trump assassination attempt). Paramedics work their asses off running sometimes 23 out of 24 hours no lunch,forced breaks, you need an ambulance for real emergency you could be out of luck!
Start charging a dollar to call 911
Screen out the nonsense or bogus calls.
Oh yes and how about the numerous calls to cfd from nursing and elderly sites where people have fallen out if bed and staff refuses to pick them up. Talk about a law suit . Why should cfd be called over and over for the incompetence of workers . Plain and simple this is bullshit and cfd should charge $$ for those calls .
As a sergeant (now retired) I used to tell my guys all the time to stop calling for an ambulance when on a call and the victim, ofnd, or whoever requested one. If you have a battery victim and it's not a trauma case, drive them to the hospital yourself and do the rpt there. That ambulance may be needed for a major call, and that call could be someone, especially a cop, shot.
"she got's a belly ache"
Knowing people at oemc and fire, I can confirm the ridiculousness. 15-20 minute wait times for ambulances. Paramedic engines/trucks stripped down to oxygen & CPR only basic life support. Paramedic engines/trucks tied up on BS like leaky water pipes, muh pilot light is out and the shower is cold. The power is out and I'm hot in this house. Someone needs to grow a pair and say no. Stop wasting resources on shit that's clearly not an emergency.
Burnout among medics is skyrocketing not only from call volume but also from draconian discipline for basically minor infractions, firings with little recourse, and violence against medics. Mums the word about bitings, kicking, scratching, hair pulled out, spit on etc.
I always love it when they demand to go to Northwestern and the Ambulance crew says no, like a miracle they are cured.
It will never change, a "Certain Community" want more and more freebees and another "certain group of ILLEGALS" abuse the hospitals ER for their 5-10 kids that only have sniffles..why? Because they get free medical, free prescriptions, etc. Growing up, my parents would just run to the local drugstore and get over the counter medication to help us, yea we were sick for a few days but got over it. The illegals tie up ER space and time for nothing and trust me its going to get worse. At the district I worked I would open up hospital mail that the illegals would get and OMG, there were bills from $3000 to $15000, so who pays for that?? Keep voting DemoRATic!!
Got a run at 2:00 am for woman who was feeling "woozy" and wanted to be checked out. She said she had drank a half liter of Pepsi at midnight and couldn't fall asleep for some reason. She was too "woozy".
We then got a call for a drunk 350lb fat slob who had fallen out of her chair in her backyard. She wanted someone to help her get back up into her chair so she could continue drinking.
And, 90% of the people never pay a dime for any of these runs.
Not to mention the waste of ambulances on the Drunks and Mentals. We would have assholes off the street come into a police station and ask for an amblance...ok, you walked here to the station, why cant you walk or take the bus to the hospital yourself? Again, a certain community of abusers.
This city is no longer "The city that works" remember that motto? Now because of all the diversity and progressive (more like regressive or retarded) fools in top spots, the city is fubar
So what is Brandon doing today?
Urgent need to remove George Washington statue from City Hall. Yup. As soon as he gets confirmation of all those communists appointed to Zoning Board, to quelch all private-sector real estate development.
Has Brandon's baby been born yet? He still living large in Lombard. Curious people need to know.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
...... Years ago the old COS took every crackpot call and dispatched them with no screening.
7/17/2024 01:00:00 AM
Not true. I was there in the 80's. Informally you could "pocket" the dispatch card or call for a supervisor who could then initial the card with out a dispatch. You would be surprised what was handled over the phone.
Why all the belly-aching? Can't be a badass Ghetto cop/medic/firefighter without the Ghetto...and yes,(to the civilian readers) more than many humans DO take pride in "being ghetto"!
As a sergeant (now retired) I used to tell my guys all the time to stop calling for an ambulance when on a call and the victim, ofnd, or whoever requested one. If you have a battery victim and it's not a trauma case, drive them to the hospital yourself and do the rpt there. That ambulance may be needed for a major call, and that call could be someone, especially a cop, shot.
7/17/2024 06:54:00 AM
So you suggested that your officers play ambulance instead of calling the actual ambulance? You wanted to make sure there were enough ambulances out there while the police were tied down driving people to hospitals? Brilliant plan, sarge! What if there's a "major call" where an officer needs another officer, but you've got them playing ambulance? Then there's the whole lawsuit thing. "I axed for a amberlamps and they put me in the back of a police car!" What if they allege injury from being transported in a police car? What if they have a more serious medical issue than the police officer decided they have? Police aren't triage nurses, paramedics, cab drivers, etc. Chances are that ambulance you freed up to handle that "major call," is driving some ghetto rat to the hospital because she's pregnant and has gas. Anyone reading this today, call the ambulance every time it's requested. Let fire decide if it was necessary. If your arrestee says he needs an ambulance, ask him why and then call the ambulance. Don't argue about his chest pains or his "I can't breathe" bullshit. Let the paramedics or the hospital clear him. Anything else can get you sued and/or fired.
Washington DC was going thru this when I was there from 2006 to 2016. They eventually had to buy more paramedic vehicles and hire more paramedics for the 50% of the city that thought they deserved concierge medical service for things like a cut finger or headache. I don't see Chicago's politicians alienating this portion of their voting base. They will just dig this hole even deeper.
Work the OT take test to get promoted to AC retire at 20 yrs with health insurance then it might b worth it to be a medic on cfd!
Okay let's rant. As noted these are mostly "community" calls, and f'n community ain't going anywhere. Ever. Sooner or later (likely sooner) the whole system will collapse and God help those that are left.
In the City and have some money? Keep that list of private ambulance services handy. They may ask for method of payment up front, including Medicaid, Medicare, credit/debit card, but make that list and keep it handy for yourselves and your family anyway.
And this cr*p is for the "community".
A friend near me had his wife go down with blood sugar so low that delirium set in and he could not get her to drink sugar water or take sweets.
He called an ambulance, the paramedic gave IV glucose, got her back, and supervised food intake. She recovered, and was not transported to the hospital.
Because there was no hospital transport, Medicare refused coverage. Because Medicare refused, her supplemental / gap coverage refused. That cost them $1,000.
The cr*p reported here just pisses me off.
John in Indy
I got explosive diarrhea, and sweating profusely sitting on the toilet. Send the ambulance 🚑
Anonymous said...
As a sergeant (now retired) I used to tell my guys all the time to stop calling for an ambulance when on a call and the victim, ofnd, or whoever requested one. If you have a battery victim and it's not a trauma case, drive them to the hospital yourself and do the rpt there. That ambulance may be needed for a major call, and that call could be someone, especially a cop, shot.
HEY SARGE, stay retired you goof. I bet you were a real pleasure to work with you piece of DUNG. That's the problem CPD has, to many Chiefs and no Indians. Believe me there are tons of bosses starting with sergeants that don't know their head to ass, when it comes to supervision or management. Everything this goof mentioned "wrong" always make a good call and call the ambulance "let them decide" us PO's are not nurses, doctors, especially paramedics.....
Hey 1:53 AM
Did you have a wire tap In those Wagons back in the day?
�������� Old Timers THANK YOU & GOD BLESS YOU OLD FART ❤️❤️����
Send an ambulance my stomach got the blues !!!!
Aren’t the dispatchers trained in EMS the way other centers are? If a dispatcher gets a call & the caller says my arm is sore from a tattoo he/she is not allowed to prioritize this like EVERY hospital in Illinois??? People bitch because they go into a hospital at 1:30 & an ambulance pulls in 5-10 minutes later & they are whining why that guy/gal goes 1st. It’s called triage. If you have a pool cue sticking out of your head you will probably get in line 1st. A sore arm may sit for a few hours. On my department I’ve heard people say I thought I would be seen quicker if I came in the ambulance. When that occurred I would start a big needle IV & give them a little more to think about. Wrong yes, but street justice when a town of 25,000-40,000 people have only 2 ambulances that means occasionally no ambulance available. Huge problem not many answers but dispatch doing triage may be the solution but as I have heard from a lot of guys before retiring & you can hear it in almost any firehouse “ but we always do it that way” we have to do better & not just because that’s the way we always do it……….
I got explosive diarrhea, and sweating profusely sitting on the toilet. Send the ambulance 🚑
7/17/2024 08:53:00 PM
Send the cdc hazmat crew.
Full containment capable.
With sterilizer flame throwers.
Most of Chicago’s dispatchers are medics themselves at minimum they are B’s keep in mind dispatchers don’t talk to the public the call takers do it’s an entirely different job. This isn’t the movies or a small hick town. The call takers CAN turn down calls but they don’t. There’s no ORDER saying they cannot only a memo. That’s the only answer I can think of to get ahold of this monster that was created and taking control of the city again keep resources available for what is right. More aggressive triaging over the phone going by what is being told considering age and medical history.
24yr old “not feeling guuud” but has a history of wolf parkinson white”. Definitely!
Any ambulance request from Chinatown. Definitely!
19yr old with no medical history using no medicine with a stomach ache for a half hour? No.
Good luck getting the dinosaurs with the “we always did it this way” mentality to back up a course correction.
“the community” will always be the way they are they will always have the cradle to grave mentality they will always be helpless and live dysfunctionally and they will always abuse resources that’s nothing new but years ago it was said that such a system will not cannot sustain forever and it looks like it’s now coming to a head. Paramedics are burnt out and leaving or they are putting themselves on the the medical while the city is unable to hire new medics since the applicant pool is dwindling each year. Sounds like the only way to solve this is to revamp who gets an ambulance and deal with the calculated risks. 90% of the customers aren’t going to pay the ambulance bill anyway so the city saves money on rehires, vehicle maintenance, fuel and general logistics. Sounds like a win to me.
People don’t want to go to immediate care bc they might charge them
If they aren’t poor.
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