• 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘬@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    the ambulance has to go from the hospital to your house and back

    And it has a doctor on board. So the emergency treatment starts right at my house.

    • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
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      11 months ago

      In the US, ambulances are staffed by medical technicians and have no connection to hospitals or doctors outside of delivering patients to them.

    • chitak166@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Ehh, restricted to the capacities of an ambulance which is why they’re taking you to a hospital anyways.

      Also, the 1-way trip the ambulance makes to your house could be done in a similar amount of time as the 1-way trip you take to the hospital. Then your real treatment can begin.

    • Fondots@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Ambulances almost never have a doctor onboard in the US

      There are 2 main levels of EMS, Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Life Support (ALS) There’s some additional sub-categories, and some things vary according to local regulations and such, bit I’m just giving a very general overview.

      As a general rule BLS will be staffed by EMTs and ALS will have a paramedic.

      Paramedics can start an IV, administer some more medications than an EMT can, and provide some other more advanced treatments, but they stop well short of what a doctor can do.

      Not all ambulances are staffed to the ALS level, a lot of places have had a hard time keeping their EMS agencies fully staffed, I know in my area, in theory, all of our agencies can provide ALS service, but frequently some of them have to go BLS-only due to staffing issues. Because of this, some areas have started expanding the scope of what EMTs are able to do to make up for a lack of paramedics (though they also often face a lack of EMTs as well)

      • 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘬@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        I’m sure that’s the same over here. But the situation in this discussion was that a family member shows signs of a stroke, in this case I don’t think they will send an ambulance only capable to provide BLS but hopefully one of those.