How EMS Finds Their Patients

I’m always talking here on the MedicCast about helping our public to understand how EMS works. We need to give them an idea of what to expect when they call 911 and what to expect when we show up at their house. These things help make the calls go smoother and they also help us meet expectations a little more evenly. We meet them because their expectations are a little more realistic.

Getting to the Patient’s House

One of the things that we have to do is to be able to find our patients and find their homes. I know in my area it is a big challenge. Not everybody has a well marked address or driveway and it can be difficult to find people sometimes. This new item I found is a great article out of Lake Tahoe, California. It’s written by the local ambulance service about how to properly mark your driveway or your residence.

The article talks about the size of the lettering, it talks about how to use reflective lettering and contrasting colors such as white letters against a dark background or dark letters against a white background. Whatever the case may be, it explains it really easily here in the article. This is again another great example for you on how to reach out to your public in yet another way.

Reaching Our EMS Public

We’ve talked about all the different articles like this off and on over the last couple of years and this is the first one I remember talking about how we have to find the patient first before we can even treat them. We have to get there before we get to meet or exceed their expectations for our treatment. I hope you will continue to think about things like this in how you interact and deal with your communities.

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Follow up on the links from this news item and all this week’s additional resources from the MedicCast — EMS Narrative Writing, Part 1 and Episode 305.

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