We Get Paid

We were sent lights and sirens to a hospital 30 miles away in the middle of a driving rainstorm for a guy going from the small hospital to a bigger hospital to have a cardiac cath operation. We get there and the ER nurse tells us, "We canceled you right after we called. It's going to be a few more hours. We're waiting for the hospital to clear a bed so they can accept him."

Later in the day, we were sent for a fever at a nursing home in a suburban town. We were sent non-priority, then about fifteen minutes into the trip, we were upgraded to lights and sirens, and told the cops wanted us there on a priority. We asked if there were any symptom changes, and they responded, "it must be worse than they thought." When we got there there were no cops. There had never been cops. No one at the nursing home knew anything about an upgraded call. The guy, who had mild dementia, had a fever of 101, good vitals, and was pain free.

You can complain, or as my partner says, we get paid by the hour. I would shorten it to say, we get paid.

At least today the patients were lighter.

An old man with pnemonia, a fifteen year old stung by a bee with an allergic reaction, a man with dementia who fell out of his wheelchair, a psych transfer, and a woman who had a seizure.