Private Dispatchers

Now a lot of the time in EMS, we get pissed at the dispatchers. Now most of this isn't us really being assholes toward them, we know that they're the ones getting the shitty information and putting it our way, but we just need to get pissed at someone and they are the messengers who are going to get shit on.

Then there are the private dispatchers.

Now, if you read this blog for any length of time, you'll soon come to understand my disdain for the private "EMS" companies that set up shop around here. As a matter of fact, I no longer work for any of them after being treated like shot at almost every single one of them. But there were some pretty bad dispatchers.

Here's one of them. I had been working at this place for about 2 weeks. We get a dialysis patient who has this sense of entitlement about him, but is confused nonetheless. We get in the truck and the dispatcher tells us what nursing home we are taking the patient to. I've heard of the name before, but I'm not sure where that is, so I ask for an address so I can look it up in the mapbook or on the GPS. The reply I get over the radio?

"I told you what nursing home he is going to! You've been working here for 2 weeks now and it's not my job to tell you how to get places!"

I reply, "Well sir, actually it is your job, but I don't need directions, I just need the address and I can figure it out on my own."

He replies, "Well, you've been there before whether you realize it or not, so figure it out!"

I try calling my supervisor, no answer. I go into the dialysis center to see if they have a number for the nursing home. It's been disconnected. Great... it's a big city. I ask my partner who is newer than I am if he has any clue where we're going. Nope. The patient has no idea where it is, the address, or how to get to it either.

All right then, old fashioned grid search. Based on the name, I know what suburb the nursing home is probably in, so I go there, and start driving up one street and down the next. About an hour and a half later, we've been through the entire suburb, no nursing home. About 2 hours into this thing, we get a radio buzz from our dispatcher wondering where we are.

"I'm on high and 1st right now still looking for this nursing home!" I tell him. He finally give me the address and I realize why I missed it the first time through the city--the road it was on was closed.

Turns out, the dispatcher was pissed because some guys were asking him for directions all the time instead of looking it up in their mapbooks so he figured he's just stop telling people where things were. We work for the same company! While I was on that run for 3 hours, we could have been out there making more money! It actually is your job to tell us how to get places, that's after all what a dispatcher does, but taking out your frustration on us for the actions of another crew? God forbid we help each other sometimes!