Fort Worth Mother Waits 1 Hour For Ambulance

Idiots. I hope I never need an ambulance when I come to Ft. Worth. Not very comforting.

very lousy job in ft. worth .. dallas is best job ....

Thats no exscuse

Ok, so they forget to swing by your place and you get an apology? At least the pizza dude gives you half off, or free if you tell him to keep it.

Something went wrong here. I would like to know more facts on this. The baby didnt die or get worse, so even if 911 was late, it caused no harm. I know this isnt the point, but maybe this is, how many times did she call and they tell her the baby was fine? Or that it was not serious enough for 911 transport and she could take the baby to the hospital?

This is me thinking outloud. I am pretty sure they were not late just because...

In my opinion I find it very disturbing that the dispatcher did not believe this was an emergency situation. I am sure that 59 minutes seemed like a life time for that child and mother. It is common for the fire department to respond on all priority 1 and 2 calls dispatched by MedStar, Just an opinion but it seeme like the dispatcher did not have an ambulance available and was buying time by making this a low priority responce. The mother should make a complaint with the Texas Department of State Health Services EMS compliance for review.

Really easy to comment when you don't know the full story! You only know half of it!!

As an EMS employee I can tell you it is not a case of the dispatcher not believing it was an emergency situation. The call was an emergency and was triaged over the phone. It was demed by protocls that it was a lesser priority. Due to our protocols it is IMPOSSIBLE for a dispatcher bid time and not send an ambulance due to their opinion. You are only as good as your caller!!! Don't make comments about things you don't know about!!!

First of all unless everyone know's how complex the system is at MedStar and how EMD, emergency medical dispatch works then you don't need to make any comments. You never talk about all the incredibly great things that happen and how many lives are saved by the medics that work there on a daily basis. How incredibly busy the days are and how many people are taken care of each day.
Every call has a priority and MedStar is nationally reconized for it's EMD. They are top in the country. Each call has specific questions that have to be answered very specificly and that determins the responce priority not the dispatcher. In this case the pt was completely stable and that is why it was a low priority. On every call the caller is given instructions to call back if anything changes with the patient and in this case she did several times and each time the patients condition was stable. Do you have any idea how many calls were running at that time and how many ambulances were on the streets. It was unfortuante but sometimes anyone can be overwhelmed. I can tell you personally that MedStar is one of the best and they do a great job.

Idiots....Dallas is better...no excuse....Buying time....looks like all comments from people that have no idea what the world of EMS is like. During that time of day, on a Thursday, MedStar is running about 25 ambulances covering Fort Worth and 14 client cities. Now, a proven statistic is that 90% of calls in EMS can be seen in a DRs office, or that they can go to the ER by a Taxi. You say that there is no excuse, you are right, there is no excuse for MedStar to be 20 Medics in the hole, because of low pay, extremely high call volume. The biggest complaint that you hear is our low pay. Did you know that a medic makes $14 an hour? Did you know that there are cities like Saginaw, Haslet, White Settlement and a few others that pay NO subsidies, and all that Fort Worth pays is 2 million for a 30 million dollar operation? And REDHAIR said "Dallas is better". Did you know that the medics under Biotel have to call the hospital to know WHAT COLOR BOX TO PUSH NEXT? Talk about poor clinical skills. So you say "Idiots"...."Da llas is better"..."no excuse"...."Buying time". If your upset by this column, then give Tarrant County College a call, they have an EMT basic class coming up soon. After that, then you can go through Paramedic School and come on out and work with us. If you dont want to start doing that, then start writing to your council members, go to your mayors office, let them know we need some help, and in a bad way.

I agree completely with Just A Medic. You guys have no idea about what is going on or how EMS or EMD works. It is sad that the public has such little respect for EMS and how hard we work. It's easy to sit back and play arm chair quarterback.

You people that are slamming Medstar should spend just one day on the streets with them. There's not a finer group of young men & women to be found. Because they are 20 medics shy of a full staff, the medics on the street run back to back calls. That's why the dispatcher follows the rules of protocol. Do you think all the questions he asks the caller is just for the hell of it? The dispatcher doesn't decide who gets an ambulance & who doesn't. The answers to those questions do. Medstar has very strict protocol in place & as it should be. If your mother was having a massive heart attack, wouldn't you want the ambulance that had been dispatched to a non life threatening call diverted to your mother? I would & that's what would happen. You never hear of the amazing things that these talented & highly skilled medics do on a daily basis. Many people are alive today because my son loves his job. The pay & long hours are not what keeps them at Medstar, it's the love of the job. I personally know many of the medics & like I said before, this is a fine group of men & women. I am proud to know them. I doubt any of these people that are so quick to criticize would have the stamina to last a day in the life of a Medstar Paramedic.

New mom, panic stricken.. on phone tells the dispatcher "baby is breathing again". I find it troubling they take observations from a panic-stricken mother and use them to make the triage decision. I understand that there are decisions to be made, but there was a disconnect somewhere along the way. An hour, in a metropolitan area, with a fire station close by? Medstar should have contacted FWFD after the first call to get a first responder over to the residence. And those that offer that she could have driven to the hospital? Baby has just had a seizure, and mom is panicked, probably not a good idea to be behind the wheel. And if the baby had had another seizure while on the road, it might have been a far worse situation.

Concerned Bystander, I can understand where you are coming from... but just because the mother is scared and frighten does not necessitate a more urgent response. The child was stable... period! There are a multitude of question that any lay person can understand that are used to triage! Agreed that FD probably should have been contacted sooner and that the mother likely should not have been driving. Once again... don't criticize until you have walked a mile in their shoes! Hindsight is 20/20!

Concerned Bystander I don't think you understand. Emergency Medical Dispatch is set up to take the human factor out of dispatching. We have to ask specific questions word for word and input the answers word for word. That determins the responce priority and if first responders are required. Every call to 911 is given a priority depending on the specific life threatning symptoms. Airway, Breathing, Circulation always comes first above everything else not how upset someone is.

Man you watch a couple of episodes of ER and all the sudden you are an expert! Did everyone miss the part about the child was fine?

just a medic wrote:

Concerned Bystander I don't think you understand. Emergency Medical Dispatch is set up to take the human factor out of dispatching. We have to ask specific questions word for word and input the answers word for word. That determins the responce priority and if first responders are required. Every call to 911 is given a priority depending on the specific life threatning symptoms. Airway, Breathing, Circulation always comes first above everything else not how upset someone is.

your doing an excellent job. don't listen to those women. they sit on buttox watching oprah all day

One more thing about this patient. Once fire dept. did get on scene and evaluated the little kid they did not feel the need to upgrade the responding ambulance to a priority status which proves the fact that this kid was stable. There is no mention of any of the other hundreds of calls that were ran that day during that time where people's lives were in danger and Medstar did make a difference.

Who better to make observations than someone on the scene that is with the patient? Perhaps MedStar should route all calls to your phone so you can make the determination on what priority to send the call out.

The MPDS Protocols that the National Academy of Emergency Medical Dispatch has developed is a tried and true set of protocols that are used all around the world. The intention is to provide a set of basic questions that a lay person can answer, the answers to the questions inturn determine the priority in which the call is dispatched. One of the Post Dispatch Instructions clearly state that if the patient gets worse in anyway to call back immediately. The patient's condition had not changed when the mother called back. Once FD made scene if they felt that the call required an upgrade in priority they would have contacted MedStar Dispatch and requested that the call be upgraded.

Please educate yourself before you critize the folks that bust their tails day in and day out for meager wages. They don't do it for the glory, they do it because they care.

Who better to make observations than someone on the scene that is with the patient? Perhaps MedStar should route all calls to your phone so you can make the determination on what priority to send the call out.

The MPDS Protocols that the National Academy of Emergency Medical Dispatch has developed is a tried and true set of protocols that are used all around the world. The intention is to provide a set of basic questions that a lay person can answer, the answers to the questions inturn determine the priority in which the call is dispatched. One of the Post Dispatch Instructions clearly state that if the patient gets worse in anyway to call back immediately. The patient's condition had not changed when the mother called back. Once FD made scene if they felt that the call required an upgrade in priority they would have contacted MedStar Dispatch and requested that the call be upgraded.

Please educate yourself before you critize the folks that bust their tails day in and day out for meager wages. They don't do it for the glory, they do it because they care.

Let me also take a moment to say thank you the Fort Worth Star Telegram for always supporting MedStar, mentioning when they make spectacular saves, deliver children of our city, and work so hard! Oh wait, that's right... THAT NEVER HAPPENS!! The only time MedStar is mentioned in your paper is when it is negative! If there was a great outcome it was the Fire Department that was responsible not MedStar, some how the FD threw the patient on their truck (I guess on top of the hoses) and transported the patient to the hospital?!?!?! If there was a picture taken and a MedStar ambulance was in the shot, on a positive article the MedStar logo is cropped out! And we are merely mentioned as the local ambulance service. But if its negative it's front page!! MedStar logo everywhere can't miss it! THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT!!!