Monday, April 18, 2005

Concrete Ideas

If anyone who counts is reading this, they probably get the idea that the natives are restless, and disgruntled. Well, they are, but there have been few concrete ideas about how to improve the situation. It's important for us to keep posting, since this is an excellent way to gauge the general state of gruntlement as well as a good CISD for everyone.
Many who post here are simply minions doing the bidding of the overlords. What we could use is a good set of specific ideas to make things better. But if you're reading this and you're in a position to make things happen, read on.
We need in house training and education programs. I understand that this was recently discussed. We can go outside for our training, but this is expensive and difficult. ACLS, PALS, BTLS, CPR and EMT refresher training needs to be available, as well as CE hours. Hurrah for reinstating monthly meetings in an effort to accomplish this goal! Let's make sure we make use of it and all you instructors of the various disciplines - make yourselves available for courses! In-house training programs for new EMT's and paramedics would be very proactive in attracting new employees. There are lots of people out there who'd be proud to have gone to the New Orleans "EMS Academy!"
We need a way to attract and retain existing employees. Of course everyone immediately expects a raise, but there are other ways to put money in pockets without hitting up the budget. Anyone remember the dinosaur days at Medic One when we used to get points for good behavior - coming in early, running more than your share of calls, getting compliments from patients? They translated that to gift certificates from Sears. That was cool. How about offering similar stuff, or discounts on movies, or cell phones or Best Buy or something?
We need a way to reduce liability and improve patient documentation. I'm sure most will agree, those Hammerheads suck! I'm sure it makes it easier for billing, after all, it was Lockheed's idea to bring in those blasted things. But there are other electronic systems that do a better job of documentation. And with better documentation, patients will recieve better continuity of care at the hospital, and out libility will be reduced because of unclear documentation. If we're worried about the budget, we can help obviate a multimillion dollar lawsuit be reducing liability.
We also don't need to rearrange things in dispatch related to creating item numbers. Charity calls do not need to be put into the computer and stay in the queue for days from the time they were scheduled. The system is not designed for non-emergency calls. In addition, Charity calls are billed completely differently from 911 calls. Creating computer items would only increase the workload for Yolanda and everyone else involved in billing. Entering all these calls in the computer only seems lie a ploy to artificially inflate our call volume. We already have plenty of calls; we don't need to create more!

Any other ideas? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

check this out
Chad worked at NOHD in '99
http://chadbenson.blogspot

Anonymous said...

Sean, I think you have some great ideas. In house education is a must. From what I understand, Mr. Niemack is supposed to be doing an ACLS class in the very near future, so that is a step in the right direction. Another cool addition to your employee incentives can be to have an employee of the month, who can be rewarded with gift certificates to local stores or a good eatery. If these establishments are made aware of the employee of the month thing, they may even be nice enough to donate the gift certificates. About the Hammerheads....they do suck. I think that most of us feel that way. It seems as though you just can't document on them as you can on paper. I would much rather do a paper report that try to work with something that constantly crashes, gives me a funky green screen, won't even turn on, goes from a battery power of 100% to that lethal 10% in 1.5 seconds, and then has the nerve to not even let me send my reports at ETOD. Think about it... no computers would be a good thing...less overtime that was acquired at ETOD just from trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with the hammerhead, less rolled calls b/c we would be able to clear out of the hospitals in a more timely fashion b/c we wouldn't be trying to go from screen to screen and trying to get a signature and trying to print, all while the computer decided it would crash for the 10th time of the day. If its billing that is the main concern, why not do an in service on billing 101? Fitz, can you set up a hammerhead poll like you did the uniform poll? I have a feeling the results would be almost all the same as you and I feel.

Anonymous said...

Tim, he must have been a Military student. I don't recall his name as an employee.

Anonymous said...

I think there needs to be a longer orientation period for new employees. New employees are run through a gauntlet of information (my binder was 3 inches thick) by 6230 for a day-and-a-half, put through a 5 minute "obstacle course" for defensive driving, third ride for only 3 shifts, and are then thrown to the wolves. Consequently, we have employees who still don't know their protocols, turn in shitty paperwork, don't know the radio codes, have no idea where they're going, etc. Eventually, they are taught by their partner(s) who may not be doing it correctly either. Most major city EMS services have at bare minimum several weeks of academy training to help to standardize their new employees and to weed out the tards. We could certainly use some of the latter.

i'msofain said...

hell, i didn't even get to third ride once. they threw my ass into charity with kenny on my first day after orientation.

Anonymous said...

Chad worked for 8 months in '98 was Fried for taking Pictures of a PT with a Shotgun blast to the head .
Was a very good medic but young then.

Anonymous said...

this is in response to what baked alaska wrote....first of all, to "weed out the tards" you'd lose 3/4 of the employees. as far as more orientation, i totally agree, however, they take what's in the black book very seriously, even though they employ medics who treat patients like shit and assault patients. as far as not knowing radio codes and even shitty paperwork, doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things when the paramedics don't know the protocols, or how about all the junkies employed by the "greatest ems service", that's the biggest joke, sad when half the employees are doped up when they come to work and management turns their heads.

Anonymous said...

HALF the employees doped up when they come to work??? I don't know what watch you're on or what company you came from, but if you are that unhappy here, don't bitch about it and waste your time at a place that will make you miserable! Maybe you might want to choose a new service!

Anonymous said...

first and foremost i've worked all the watches, i wasn't bitching i was simply stating a fact.
maybe instead of spending so much time on this website that everybody bitches on,you should snap out of the fog you're in thinking that this service is the best. perhaps you should try working for another service and maybe then you won't be so naive.

Sean said...

Anonymous-
those are some pretty hefty accusations! What do you mean by "junkies" and "doped up"? I've been here 14 years, and I have yet to see more than a handful of people report to work under the influence of anything. If they have, it hasn't affected patient care. Furthermore, those I have seen are not here anymore.
I have to agree with Melinda, you sound unhappy and clearly have a very poor opinion of NOHD. Maybe one of those other EMS services you seem so fond of would be a wise career decision. Despite its problems, I'm very happy and proud to work for NOHD. You would likely do better elsewhere; a place with fewer challenges and a less diverse spectrum of employees.

T-MAN said...

Hey anonymous like Sean said very harsh. Makeing those type of accusations and sounding fairly strong in believing them. As we know we have had our share a problems but I don't believe it's as you put it. As a whole we have good people who bust thier asses to earn a good living for their family. If it has you so disgusted maybe you should go to where it's better than here. My name is Terry who are you? And I have worked others services, going on twenty years, wont see me anywhere else.Again sounds like you want to be somewhere else, well will miss you when you go. Always hard to loose a member of the family, oh who will we be saying goodbye too again??

Anonymous said...

Anonymous....The only fog I'm in is the fog of negativity that you portray for NOHD....deep breath....okay, the fog is gone. Your words only affected my day for about half a second. And for your information, I have worked for other services as an employee and as a preceptor. Do you see me dogging all the other services??? NOOOO you don't, because I don't feel that its necessary to do so, unlike you. And as far as spending a lot of time on this website, it doesn't happen. But if it did, that would be my buissness, just like complaining about the service you work for and being so negative is your buissness. Just like you seem to think that half of the people at NOHD are under the influence all of the time, you also seem to think that this website is just for bitchin....its not! Looks like you may be the one having the fog problem. Hope you have a nice day.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous,
You must be from "C" Watch.

Anonymous said...

Amen!!