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submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

If you're injured or ill but it's not life or limb threatening and you decide to call an ambulance thinking it'll be faster and you'll be seen first... WRONG. Ambulance crews very frequently will advise the hospital staff that you "can wait". Then we'll plop you into a wheel chair and push you into the waiting room with everyone else.

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[-] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

Don't worry. As an American, I don't entertain the thought of calling an ambulance for anything less than life threatening.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

If it's merely life-threatening, then I'll wait for an Uber.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah I gotta actively be on the way out before I'm gonna hop in the ambulance willingly.

[-] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

This is quite true, with one exception: It would be very wrong for any medic or EMT to tell a receiving nurse "that you can wait". I am a paramedic in Virgina, USA, and that's not how we do things. We deliver the patient to the ER, tell the nurse the patient's chief complaint, our findings, and any other pertinent information. We do not presume to diagnose the patient or suggest treatment modalities or strategies. The nurse passes our information and any new findings to the doctor. It is ALWAYS the doctor who tells the nurse to find a staff member to wheel a non-emergent patient out of the emergency room. very often, as you point out.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

When hubby & wife meet you at end of driveway. Hubby has "flu like symptoms" and wifey follows the ambulance for the 2.5 minute ride to the ER... you better believe the first words out of my mouth to the triage nurse will be: "This guy can wait."

[-] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Also.. In the US a lot of people don’t want to call an ambulance because of the cost, BUT it doesn’t cost anything for them to show up and assess whether you need to go in an ambulance or not. So if you are in a potentially life threatening situation, you should call 911. They can show up, potentially save your life, and then have a friend transport you.

[-] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

It isn’t common but some places do charge for an “assessment” in the US. It’s relatively cheap compared to a transport, like $50-75 at least that’s what I know from my experience and I’ve only ever worked at one place that did that.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Huh, seen this bug on Reddit and now Lemmy, weird.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

It isn’t common but some places do charge for an “assessment” in the US. It’s relatively cheap compared to a transport, like $50-75 at least that’s what I know from my experience and I’ve only ever worked at one place that did that.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

It isn’t common but some places do charge for an “assessment” in the US. It’s relatively cheap compared to a transport, like $50-75 at least that’s what I know from my experience and I’ve only ever worked at one place that did that.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Lemmy just upvote all three of these just because i am also new.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Comes up to the country.

In Germany if you think you have something serious CALL 112 and ask for an ambulance ASAP you will be put in the next hospital with space put instantly in and get care ASAP

While going on feet / yourself to emergency care can take literarily hours.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

And it will either be free or cost almost nothing.

Why it's important to know? There was a question from American student in Germany on r/germany. They had an abdomen pain and roommate called an ambulance without asking. Student was terrified as they thought it won't be able to pay the bill afterwards. American health system sucks :(

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

ye it will cost you in worst case 40 euro for the ambulance and 10 € per day for max 24 days per year if you need to stay in hospital. thats it.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Could you please add a "Why YSK:"? Thank you. :)

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

this seems quite country specific. Care sharing which one?

[-] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Triage is common throughout the world. I don’t believe anywhere will ambulance service automatically get you seen sooner.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

i think you could be surprised how different things can function in a country different than the US. Especially the medical system. So it could be interesting to have that conversation. I work in the medical field but nowhere near a hospital so can't bring much

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I've had to take ambulances many times in my country, and it's the same here. Triage is triage, I would be shocked if it worked differently... anywhere. If ambulances got you seen faster, it would be at the expense of someone who needed treatment more, and that's bad from both a healthcare perspective (you will save fewer patients) and a financial perspective (dead patients don't pay).

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That's fair and logical arguments. But I guess you are already kind of treated in the ambulance, and if it's not long to finish treating you fully after that, would they do it so they can dismiss you and focus on the rest of the patients?

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Ambulances don't really "treat" you, except in the simplest of cases. A paramedic/EMT is not a doctor. Their training is largely in stabilizing you, that is, making sure you don't die before you get to the hospital, where you enter the triage system. They haven't treated you, they've only done their best to keep the problem from getting worse. (I'm not saying this isn't a valuable skill, just that it's not the same as "kind of treating" you)

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Oh? Here in Canada the paramedics actually stay with you until you get admitted.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, that's what they did with me when I went in a couple of weeks ago here in Australia (non-critical car accident). The paramedics hung around and I stayed on their ambulance stretcher until I went into an Emergency bed.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

If you want to be treated sooner, arrive with a more serious injury.

spoilerI do not recommend this.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Thus is the first use of a spoiler I've seen on Lemmy, and I like it.

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this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
71 points (89.9% liked)

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