Try to image yourself having a true medical emergency. Whether it be chest pain, shortness of breath or a stroke. You are scared as you don’t really know what’s wrong. Perhaps it could be nothing. Maybe it’s worse. Perhaps you wont make it through the night. You aren’t trained in emergency medicine so you don’t know what’s serious and whats not. Naturally, you call for help. 2 people show up to care for you and take you to the most appropriate hospital. One of the men that comes to your aid appears to be uninterested in your problem. He rolls his eyes and asks you if you considered going in to see your primary care physician in the morning.

Does he not understand that I’m having an emergency? Did I do something wrong?

Now you don’t know whether to feel scared or stupid. You have never done this before. You want to make sure you are OK, but now you are worried that you are wasting this man’s time. You decide to go to the hospital, obviously against this guys wishes. Reluctantly he loads you into the ambulance, sits behind you and doesn’t say another word for the rest of the trip. You were seen by the ER physician and as it turns out, there isn’t anything seriously wrong. You go home with some relief, but at the same time you think to yourself that this was definitely a bad experience.

Now next time you start to experience chest pain, wouldn’t you think that you would be more likely to stay home or wait until the last minute to ask for emergency medical services again?

As EMS professionals we tend to forget the impact that we can have on every call that we run. Sure, in this scenario nobody physically suffered from this paramedic’s actions (or lack of action). However this experience could affect someone’s willingness to seek much needed help days, months or even years down the road.

To us, this may be one call out of 10 that we run in one shift. We go on to the next call and the next call and probably forget about this patient by the time we clock out. But to the patient, this ONE CALL can make a big impact on their life. If we performed life-saving interventions, they may get to live another day to spend with their family. If we fail to perform our jobs, we can negatively impact someone to the point where it actually costs them their life! Remember this is ONE CALL that we are talking about here.

I’ll be the first to admit that I have been guilty of taking what we do for granted and getting by with the minimum. For the longest time I would clock in, check out my drugs and then just do what I had to do to stay out of my supervisors office. I wasn’t rude to my patients, but I certainly lacked the TLC factor. My patients never called in complaints, but they also never called in compliments, which meant that I wasn’t doing a good enough job.

Customer service is something that is more important that anything else that we do. Sure, we may be able to start and IV while driving 70mph or intubate in the rain on the side of a busy freeway, but what good is that going to do anyone if they are too afraid to ask for our help? Simple things like talking to the elderly lady about her grandkids, or giving your pediatric patients a sticker and a toy really go a long way.

When I talk about good customer service in EMS, I am constantly reminded of the movie “Patch Adams”. The lead character in that movie did absolutely nothing medically to help his patients but what he did do significantly improved their quality of life. He made them laugh, smile and feel good about themselves. Isn’t that what we all really want?

As with any job, you occasionally run into difficult people. Some people aren’t going to be happy no matter what you do. But you still have a job to do. Sometimes you just have to bite your tongue and kill them with kindness. When all else fails, you can at least say that you tried your best.

Taking this approach not only improves your relationships with your patients, but it improves your outlook on your job. Once I realized that I am here for the patients, my stress level significantly decreased. I stopped hitting the dashboard when I was dispatched on transfers and nursing homes. I didn’t mind so much when I got back-to-back late calls. Overall, it improved my job performance to the point where I was promoted to a very nice position in the company over much more senior employees.

Just remember, you work for the patient, they don’t work for you. It is YOUR job to make sure that they have the most pleasant experience possible. If treating people with dignity and respect is too much to handle, then go work at an impound yard or a prison. It really is as simple as treating everyone as you would want your family to be treated.

For those of you out there that already do this, keep up the good work.

As always, I welcome all comments and hate mail. Have a great week!