March 6th, 2010 
Sean 
In any type of business there is a chain of command. If you are self-employed, you answer to your customers. If you work for a large corporation, then you probably have several levels of management. EMS is no exception. We all work for somebody.
If your an EMT, you probable answer to your paramedic. If you are a paramedic then you probably answer to your supervisor. If you are a supervisor, then you probably answer to an operations manager. If you are an op’s manager, then you probably answer to the owner. So now comes the big question. Who does the owner answer to? The owner answers to the people making his/her business possible. The customers, AKA the patients.
I’m sure that I will get some coments explaining that this doesn’t apply to government-run operations. That is actually far from the truth. Government-run ambulance services usually answer to either a city counsel or a county board of supervisors. They of course answer to the tax-payers that utilize your service. See where I am going with this?
The moral of this story is simple. Your patients are ultimately your boss. You work for them. They don’t work for you. Think of them as your bosses, bosses, bosses boss. Without them, you don’t have a job. They are what makes this wonderful thing called “EMS” possible.
Posted in 
Tags: 
[...] Eddy from Medic Madness asks a very important question… who do YOU work for? The answer may surprise some of you… and it may just make you rethink how you care for your [...]
While my post was mostly referring to how we treat our patients, I certainly
feel your pain. Fortunately, the service I work for encourages accurate
documentation and just deals with Medicare when it comes time.
It is frustrating that we can't deny service for any reason, yet government
funded insurance programs penalize us for transporting people that didn't
need the service.
Here is where I see the true irony… I work for a large private service… While technically, our customers are the people we answer to(and shareholders)… we really answer to the tax payers, since 80% of our patients are recipients of government services.
Where I struggle the most is the fine line of how to chart. I am a stickler for accuracy, but often that means we won't get paid by medicare–because simply put, they didn't need an ambulance in any way, shape or form.