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  • #16
    Can a volunteer be sued/held liable? Yes, with an explanation.

    Most states have Good Samaritan laws like AR stated. As long as the vol or for hire EMS person is working within their training they cannot be sued. If they overstep that boundary and attempt something that they are not certified/trained to do then they are liable.

    easy example A first responder can perform the heimlich maneuver on a choking victim. He can put his fingers in the mouth and try to remove any seen obstructions. Those actions he cannot be sued for because he was trained to perform them. But when he pulls out the xacto knife and attempts to perform a tracheostomy he has overstepped his boundary and will be held liable for any injury he causes.

    Many Good Samaritan laws have a flip side that most people are not aware of. If a trained person fails to respond he can be held liable/negligent. One of the reasons all EMTs around here have jump bags in their POV.

    If a trained EMS responder, not on duty fails to stop and render aid they can be held liable, be charged. If EMT Jones and his wife are going home after dinner and a movie with the wife and the guy in from of him runs off the road and has an accident, EMT Jones is required by law to render aid until relieved by other EMS personnel.

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    • #17
      Originally posted by Gun Grape View Post
      Patients have the right to choose which hospital they are being transported to to receive care.
      For free?

      Over here, emergency services always bring you to the next hospital able to admit you. If you want a different one (for treatment beyond first aid), you can then arrange transport from there - usually with one of the private companies - to the hospital of your choice. Insurance only pays for transport to the two closest ones, and only if you require medical care during transport, if the transport is required for medical purposes or if you got permission from them beforehand. Typical fee for a 10-mile drive would be around $130, some private companies will underbid that by 10-20 bucks. If you're transported in an emergency services vehicle without insurance paying the fee for the same distance would be around $450-500. Payable on the spot.
      Last edited by kato; 08 May 16,, 02:21.

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      • #18
        Originally posted by kato View Post
        For free?
        I can only say for my local area. The county EMS service transports to any of the 3 hospitals with an emergency room in the area for a flat fee. All within a 40 mile radius. This is for a emergency response only. I have the choice between 2 public hospitals and a private hospital.

        That said, the private hospital does not accept patients without insurance. If you go there and do not have insurance or the money to pay up front, they will stabilize your injury to the point you are safe to travel then call an ambulance/have a family member to transport you to one of the public hospitals. You pay for both ambulance calls.

        I've been to that ER, as a patient. The first question from them is "Is this a life threatening emergency?" Then Its "We don't accept medicare/medicaid, what insurance do you have?" "I need to see your insurance card and a major credit card" Only after they are satisfied you have the means to pay do you start receiving medical care.

        The private ambulance companies that transport from home care/nursing home or inter-hospital transports have their own fee schedule.

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        • #19
          Originally posted by Doktor View Post
          Guys,

          In a neverending talk about which is better and how far should the government reach the safety net, we came to EMS like ambulance and FD. Wont go with which is my take on this, would like to hear your opinions. Even better if you could back it up with first hand experience, as well as ways of funding private entities to do the job.
          Greetings all,

          Let me preface this by saying that I am trying to find the "Introductions" forum which I cannot seem to find so instead of jabbering about stuff like the F35's catching on fire I'll talk about something that I have a tiny bit of first hand knowledge about.

          Anyway, I live in a pretty rural area and we have a volunteer EMS and fire system here. The entities are separate and the fire departments actually get some money, the EMS system is all pretty much self funded and if we can find a grant for something we can do that as well sometimes. Even though we are volunteers we can still get sued for things like "not providing care to the level we have been trained at" and some such. May not seem like a big thing until you go on an accident run and one of the drivers in the accident is up and walking around while you are working on the less fortunate one, second ambulance gets there a little while later then trauma packages the person and transports them to the hospital. Later you find out the walker had already sued a different person when they were in a different accident a few years earlier, as if there was any sort of spine injury yes you could be sued even though you were working on a different patient you should have instructed this person to not be walking around. Whether or not a lawsuit would be successful is a different matter but make no mistake, you can get sued.

          In regards to costs, things are so screwed up there is really no one single place to pick as a starting point. Personally I think the beginning should be there needs to be a price list made available to the public itemizing what the costs are, from what aspirin and band aids cost to how much a heart valve or hip replacement costs. In the US it is not allowed to hide costs at gas stations, why should it be allowed for hospitals?

          I will also say that the closest hospital averages about 25 miles away, and even so it takes more time to do the paperwork after the run than it typically does to do the actual run itself.

          Anyway, greetings to all from a long time lurker!

          A

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