Lights And Sirens. Riding The Line Between Safety And Patient Care.

What is the priority for Emergency Medical Services? Is it patient care, or is it rapid transport? This has become a hot button topic of late, and I want to try to address it, carefully. For many years Paramedics and EMT's have driven as they drive, with the only generalized label put on it was to be safe, and to drive as you feel comfortable. This was always considered to be quite vague. According to the highway traffic act an ambulance can contravene the act in a safe manner not exceeding 25 percent of the posted speed limit. No specific policies had been in place with many agencies, and unfortunately due to some unsafe driving practices, limited training and also due to other people not yielding to emergency vehicles, collisions happened, and people got hurt.






That last line is what is important.. People. GOT. HURT! This, in my opinion, is unacceptable. THIS flies directly in the face of what we do as a profession. I am not laying blame, that is not what this is about. This is about what exactly it is that we do. We are health care professionals. We conduct health care in a moving box, usually on bad roads, with unpredictable situations, and drivers. These are all things that need to be considered before we start to wonder how fast we can drive. It's not a matter of how fast CAN we drive, it boils down to how fast SHOULD we drive.

I'm not going to put numbers on things, we are professionals and at the end of the day we should make professional decisions. The reality is that there are now policies in place. Whether we agree or not is kind of irrelevant. I don't say that to be harsh, it is just the reality. As health care professionals it is important to refocus on what it is we do. We take care of the sick and injured, and we transport them to health care facilities. In these facilities there are many people who can start IV's better than you, many people who can read 12 leads better than you, and a few people who can intubate better than you, BUT NO ONE can do it like you can with the wheels moving. None of those skills,however, can be performed in the back of an over sized, over weight box at mach 1 on bad roads.

There needs to be a change in our mind set. We used to, many years ago, show up, throw people on a stretcher, and drive like hell to the hospital. That is not how we do things anymore. With the advancements of treatments that can be conducted in the field we have the opportunity to initiate many therapies and effect positive change in our patients prior to arriving at the ER. Does this mean that it's OK to drive slow? Of course not! We should still be diligent and ensure that scene times are minimized while treatments are maximized. When we are responding to a scene, it is important that we arrive as quickly and as safely as possible. Bare in mind that our role as Paramedics and EMT's is constantly evolving, and we need to evolve with that role. At the end of the day focus on what is important. What is it that's important? Your patient, and YOUR safety.