End Paramedic Hallway Waits.

1. Speech to ACP Council – Sept 19, 2017 – 1100 hrs
Good Morning, ACP council Members.
I'm here today to ask you to publicly and permanently endorse a position
that Paramedics do not belong in Hospital ER Hallways.
For many years Paramedics across this country have been asked to 'help out'
w/ patients they have treated and transported safely to Hospital ER's.
Paramedics have agreed, at the request of Hospital staff and in the
interests of patient care, to 'wait for short time while we get a bed ready'.
What started out as a simple request for assistance
has now become the Ritual Abuse of Patients in our care.
What do I most often hear now, when I give report at triage?
They're not even asking anymore.
They say, "I've got no beds, you'll have to wait in the hallway."
And what exactly is 'The Hallway'?
It's like a scene from a healthcare horror movie.
Act I - Lie to the Patient. "There are no beds."
and "You should only be here a short while."
Act II - Provide Substandard Care. There is no question our care
is below any standard set in the rest of the Hospital.
Act III - Advocate for our Patient. To Who? How?
Triage alternately tells Paramedics we are annoying them
and then when something goes wrong we didn’t talk to them often enough.
Act IV - Consolidate Patients. How many patients can one Paramedic look
after so we can get EMS Crews back on the street? How high is the sky?
Act V – Continue to share responsibility of care with Hospital staff, of patients
who are often critically ill, in what has now become an adversarial atmosphere.
Act VI - Leave the ER in an EMS System Code RED, respond lights and siren
across the city to a new patient, then return to the Hospital to do it all over again.
This. Process Is. Obviously. Insane.
Our high performance Ambulance System has slid off the roadway
and become mired in an unworkable bog of Hospital Emergency Medicine.

2. Speech to ACP Council – Sept 19, 2017 – 1100 hrs
When are we going to learn?
There is no Paramedic Solution to Hospital Problems.
What's happening now is burning out our Paramedic crews
and it's become, as I said earlier, a Ritual Abuse of Patients in our care.
Here's the worst part - We are the ones who Let It Happen.
Hospital ER Hallway Waits violate many of the protections for patients
outlined in the ACP Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice.
I’ve provided ACP Council w/ a 1 page document summarizing these violations.
I'm asking you to step forward and commit
to better patient care than what is being delivered right now.
We need to make it clear to Hospital Administrators,
There is No Paramedic Solution to Hospital Problems.
The first step you must take to protect patients
is to END PARAMEDIC HALLWAY WAITS.
EMS crews must get back into the communities where they belong.
If you're worried about upsetting either
the current Gov't or AHS, we can stop this right now.
There's no point in me wasting my breath and your time…
IF - their opinion is more important than Paramedic Patient Care.
Have you all read the Position Paper I presented to PAC?
It's pretty clear - This is a Patient Care Issue.
Let's look at 3 subsets of patients. (Describe) 1 - 2 - 3.
Which of these subsets of patients are most at risk?
Now, let's look at that list of violations hallway waits create for ACP. (Describe)
Paramedic Hospital Hallway Waits need to end IMMEDIATELY.
NOT TOMORROW, NOT NEXT WEEK OR NEXT MONTH... IMMEDIATELY.
I’m here today asking you to take the lead, to show Patients,
Paramedics and all Albertans that you treat Patient Care seriously.
End the Practice of Paramedics waiting in Hospital Hallways with Patients.
Thank you for your time. I'm prepared to take your Questions.