The Fire Department as Urgent Care

From Salina.com:

Tummy ache? Go to the F.D.

For instance, Mullikin foresees a larger role for the emergency medical service portion of the department.

The EMTs already treat “walk-ins,” folks suffering from minor emergencies. Mullikin openly encourages that and hopes more people will consider stopping by a firehouse rather than going to emergency room or calling an ambulance.

“We want them to come into the station,” Mullikin said.

Mullikin said the EMTs can either treat the ailment or dispatch the sufferer to the hospital.

Someone complaining of indigestion might just have indigestion, or something more serious.

The solution might be as simple as popping several Tums, or a trip the emergency room, Mullikin said.

In the near future, the breadth of emergency medicine is certain to widen, Mullikin said, as EMTs are given more responsibility in the field. Soon, he said, they will be able to perform some treatment, such as suturing wounds, en route to the hospital.

In the good old days there was no “doctor shortage”

From Black and WTF:

Gadgets in Emergency Vehicles Seen as Peril

From the NY Times:

They are the most wired vehicles on the road, with dashboard computers, sophisticated radios, navigation systems and cellphones.

While such gadgets are widely seen as distractions to be avoided behind the wheel, there are hundreds of thousands of drivers — police officers and paramedics — who are required to use them, sometimes at high speeds, while weaving through traffic, sirens blaring.

EMS Customer Satisfaction

From JEMS:

A colleague once summarized the EMS patient’s expectations to four simple points: 1) Get there quickly; 2) Be nice to me; 3) Tell me what you’re doing, and 4) Take away my pain.

Evaluation of Farm Tractor-Related Fatalities

From The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology:

Farm tractors are the major cause of occupational fatalities in agricultural regions. Fatalities typically result from being run over or crushed by the tractor, becoming entangled in the moving parts of the tractor, accidents on roadways, and tractor rollovers, which involve the tractor tipping sideways or backwards and crushing the operator. In this study, tractor-related fatalities in the Konya province of Turkey are retrospectively evaluated. Out of the 3940 cases on which a death examination and/or autopsy was performed between the years 2000 and 2007 at The Konya Branch of Forensic Medicine Council, 86 (2.2%) of the death cases were caused by tractor accidents and are included in this study. The ages of the victims varied between 3 and 80 years old with a mean age of 31.7 ± 22.3. Sixty-eight (79.1%) of the cases involved males, while 18 (20.9%) of the cases involved females. In 32 (37.2%) of the cases, the deaths due to tractor accidents occurred when the tractor overturned. In 37 (43.0%) of the cases, the tractor-related fatalities involved the passengers and the drivers were involved in 34 (39.5%) of the cases. In conclusion, tractor accidents are preventable and deaths from tractor accidents can be significantly reduced if drivers are required to wear safety belts and helmets and frequent checks are implemented to enforce the ban on carrying passengers.