Guest guest Posted June 29, 1999 Report Share Posted June 29, 1999 I'll make some comments in the body of your post. Gene Gandy, JD, LP Paramedic Legalist In a message dated 6/26/1999 0:14:11 Central Daylight Time, hbarrentine@... writes: > Gene, > I agree with you, and I agree wholeheartedly; but, where's the > money going to come from? The man said that they are a volunteer > service; so, obviously, the taxpayers are not willing to foot the bill > for all the costs of an ems service. Payroll (including medical > direction) is the single greatest cost of an emergency medical service. I think it's important that they pay " something " even if it's only a goat or a chicken or a dozen eggs. That way the MD feels more of an obligation to actually become involved. One of our medical directors always contributed his $750 per year back to the service. He could even take a tax deduction for it. On rare occasions you'll find a physician who really wants to be active as a volunteer. Sometimes those have been paramedics before med school. Give them a siren and a Kojac light and they're in hog heaven. > On the principal that " something is better than nothing " , their > service should look at all the options available. These range from > paying a full-time medical director and staff (out of reach of everyone > smaller than AMR) to volunteer medical direction (which I'm against, as > you are). For small services, the best solution may be to find a local > doc with ties to the community, and try to pay him/her enough to make > it worth his/her while to really be involved. Also, you can use the powers of the press and good PR. Physicians can't advertise but a picture of him at extrication day directing everything prominently displayed on the front page of the local Weekly Huzzah can help his practice, especially if he's young and new, and also give him some recognition. Also, for the low paid or completely volunteer doc, make sure he gets an invite to the fund raising barbecues and watermellon festivals and hand him a full plate and a cold beer free of charge. Show up often with stuff for him to look at. Get his email address and ask questions of him often, like, " Dr. Fielgood, one of our EMTs wanted to know what's the difference in Prozac and Zoloft. Can you help? " Or, " should the cot in our new truck be mounted against the wall or in the center? Can you help. " In other words, make him feel VERY important. You get the picture. > In my opinion, the thing to be most avoided, is the medical > director who is one in name alone. Far too many services, paid and > unpaid, have " medical directors " who do nothing but sign the annual > license application. Keep looking until you can find one that will at least attend the annual banquet. Then start sending your CE stuff for her to review. She'll either get involved or resign. Send CQI stuff and ask for help in evaluating runs. Tell her how much it means to the community for her to actually be involved. If she/he is unwilling to do that much, politely suggest that you'll have to find someone that will become more involved. > After all, sometimes you can even get a lawyer to devote some of > his time... :-) > > Hank Barrentine, LP > > --- WEGandy@... wrote: > > Some are paid considerably more than that. It > > depends on what they're > > expected to do. Ideally, they'd be in charge of CQI > > and active most of the > > time. > > > > I'm acquainted with a large service which has an > > off-line medical director > > who spends several days a week with them. This > > medical director is FACEP and > > is personally involved in CQI. He/she has fine > > credentials and I assume s/he > > gets paid for services what a physician of that > > level demands. > > > > Medical direction must be seen as an integral part > > of a provider's > > infrastructure. The tradition of volunteer medical > > directors ought to stop. > > How many of you know a plumber who regularly donates > > her services to a profit > > making company? How many hours would she devote to > > a charity? > > > > It is time that EMS recognizes that it provides > > MEDICAL services overall, > > though rescue and extrication also form a part. It > > should be physician > > driven, not Mayor, City Manager, City Council, Fire > > Chief, or County > > Commissioner driven. The medical director should be > > the emperor of the > > service, and the medical director should be one who > > possesses the credentials > > and experience to be emperor of the service, and he > > or she should be paid the > > going rate for physicians' services. And, not as an > > afterthought, > > professional EMS personnel out to be paid for the > > value of their services as > > well. > > > > Gene Gandy, JD, LP > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > SIGN UP NOW FOR FREE HOME IMPROVEMENT HOW-TO'S > > Receive seasonal how-to's and climate-specific > > advice via e-mail. > > http://clickhere./click/131 > > > > > > eGroups.com home: > > /group/ > > - Simplifying group > > communications > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > SIGN UP NOW FOR FREE HOME IMPROVEMENT HOW-TO'S > Receive seasonal how-to's and climate-specific advice via e-mail. > http://clickhere./click/131 > > > eGroups.com home: /group/ > - Simplifying group communications > > > > > > > ----------------------- Headers -------------------------------- > Return-Path: <-return-5055-wegandy=aol.comreturns (DOT) > > Received: from rly-yg02.mx.aol.com (rly-yg02.mail.aol.com [172.18.147.2]) > by air-yg02.mail.aol.com (v59.51) with SMTP; Sat, 26 Jun 1999 01:14:11 -0400 > Received: from ml. 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(HELO qh.findmail.com) (10.1.2.28) > by ivault. with SMTP; 26 Jun 1999 05:12:18 -0000 > Received: (qmail 31915 invoked from network); 26 Jun 1999 05:12:19 -0000 > Received: from web202.mail.yahoo.com (HELO send205.yahoomail.com) (128.11.68. > 102) > by qh. with SMTP; 26 Jun 1999 05:12:19 -0000 > Message-ID: > Received: from [152.163.207.61] by web202.mail.yahoo.com; Fri, 25 Jun 1999 > 22:13:47 PDT > Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 22:13:47 -0700 (PDT) > > To: egroups, egroups > MIME-Version: 1.0 > Subject: [texasems-L] Re: MEDICAL DIRECTORS > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ eGroups.com home: /group/ - Simplifying group communications Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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