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Yesterday, it was reported it took 51 minutes for an ambulance to respond to a 911 call about an 88-year-old woman who fell at East 55th Street and Lexington Avenue because the ambulance had been dispatched to Manhattan from Staten Island.
The incident outraged the FDNY (which is conducting an internal investigation), Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, a witness who helped the lady--pretty much everyone except the fall victim herself! The Daily News contacted the woman, who was apparently "jostled," falling to the "hard pavement, injuring her head and back." She said, "There are two kinds of people, the complainers and the noncomplainers. I'm not one of those to complain."
And when the News told her why the ambulance took so long, she said, "Oh, goodness. Mistakes happen, even in the computer age." Aw, classy and cute! But WCBS 2 followed up and found that there can be very long waits for emergency responders. On Tuesday--which was the hottest day of the heat wave--some people's waits from 45 minutes (a woman with a broken leg) to almost two hours (a teen with a foot injury); critics say staff shortages and low pay are causing these problems.
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How can anyone in the health care industry not be paid well when the health insurance companies virtually rape their customers?
You just answered your own question. Operative word being 'insurance'.
This granny may just have coined the correct term for grade school history textbooks in the year 3000!
She wouldn't have been so charitable had she been delivering a baby or bleeding profusely or chopped off a limb or etc. etc.
Gregoire, maybe that was part of her point; she wasn't one of those people so she doesn't feel the need to complain as those peopled should. Also, the more "basic" truck would not have been dispatched to one of those situations, as was discussed in the post on this yesterday.
None of that justifies dispatching an ambulance from SI to cover a call in Manhattan, but your analogy doesn't fit the situation.
"How can anyone in the health care industry not be paid well when the health insurance companies virtually rape their customers?"
Ask your NY State Senators and Assemblymen why NY State doesn't allow out of state insurers to do business here.
(hint, rates a re lower...)
If people would stop using the EMS system as a "taxi service" to take them to the emergency room for minor complaints like a stomach ache or chronic leg pain, the resources would be available to help people who really need emergency medical care.
I worked 17 hours on Tuesday (I'm an EMT) and treated/transported 17 patients, 12 of which were non-urgent minor illness and injuries who would have been better served by seeing their doctor (GP, internest, MD). But they didn't have a regular doctor.
If people would stop using the EMS system as a "taxi service" to take them to the emergency room for minor complaints like a stomach ache or chronic leg pain, the resources would be available to help people who really need emergency medical care.
Hey, I do my part. When a ladder slipped and dumped me hard enough to break my arm, I told them not to send an ambulance. They did anyway and after they made sure I had no neck injury, I turned down an ambulance ride because obviously I could walk to the hospital.
I always summon an ambulance when I'm late for coctails. Is that wrong?