image by: Tomás Del Coro

HWN Suggests

High-Speed Care

Nothing represents the urgency of time in emergency care better than the blazing ambulance, its lights and sirens clearing its path. Some of the supposed importance of speed in medical emergencies is actually grounded in truth: For patients with cardiac arrest, the time it takes for someone to start CPR makes a big difference in survival. But for many other conditions, time (on the order of minutes) may not make as much of a difference as we once thought.

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Featured

 In 2018, Should We Take Ubers or Ambulances to the Hospital?

The question of transportation is actually not that new. Here’s what the experts advise.

Articles of Interest

Don’t Sacrifice Nuance and Throw Ambulances Under the Bus

Let us not take issue with the writing itself: Herman’s prose in “Patients still have no protection against surprise ambulance bills. And there’s no solution in sight.” is engaging. However, it comes across as more politically aggressive—but less rigorous in its commitment to digging into the facts of “why” certain industry practices are how they are...

For major health issues, choose an ambulance

My own car or an ambulance? Sure, for minor cuts and bruises that require a trip to urgent care, the former may be appropriate. But for things like heart attack symptoms, stroke symptoms or serious wounds, Kurt Bloomstrand, MD, says the choice is clear: call the ambulance.

Health care’s next big problem? Not enough ambulances

Routine and prolonged ED congestion has since led to declarations that patients waiting in an ambulance outside the ED are the new canaries in the coal mine.

Patients still have no protection against surprise ambulance bills. And there’s no solution in sight

One night in November 2021, 11 weeks into her pregnancy, Carolyn Provine started bleeding — a lot. When she passed out, her wife and mother-in-law called an ambulance and drove 21 miles to the hospital for an emergency surgery. But the hemorrhaging, and miscarriage, no longer were Provine’s only concerns.

Taken for a ride? Ambulances stick patients with surprise bills

Forty years ago, most ambulances were free for patients, provided by volunteers or town fire departments using taxpayer money, said Jay Fitch, president of Fitch & Associates, an emergency services consulting firm. Today, ambulances are increasingly run by private companies and venture capital firms. Ambulance providers now often charge by the mile and sometimes for each “service,” like providing oxygen.

The Future of HealthTech - Ambulance Drones

Within the health and safety space, there are a number of powerful applications for drones that show great promise...

The Revolution in EMS Care

Thanks to new technology, new life-saving techniques and new missions, ambulance crews are far from the ‘horizontal taxicabs’ they once were.

Think the E.R. Is Expensive? Look at How Much It Costs to Get There

Thirty years ago ambulance rides were generally provided free of charge, underwritten by taxpayers as a municipal service or provided by volunteers. Today, like the rest of the health care system in the United States, most ambulance services operate as businesses and contribute to America’s escalating medical bills. Often, they are a high-cost prequel to expensive emergency room visits.

When the Only Ambulance Is a Helicopter

In rural areas far from hospitals, an emergency may mean taking a flight—but these lifesaving trips can come with a crushingly high price tag.

Why have ambulance waiting times been getting worse?

Because the system is stretched, small increases in handover times can lead to far greater increases in average response times. The increase in handover delays is a major contributor to the decline in ambulance performance.

Resources

Ambulance Driver Files

By day he is a mild-mannered paramedic, writer and educator. At night, wearing his multi-pocketed EMS pants, he transforms into Ambulance Driver, a trauma-fighting superhero who prowls the dark streets and seamy underbelly of the city in search of little old ladies who have fallen and can’t get up.