Gov’s turning ambulances into race cars
In the old days, when an ambulance arrived at your door, the first thing the EMT would ask would be something like: “Where does it hurt?” or “What are the symptoms?” But we live in a Politically Correct world now, and so the Mass. Department of Public Health has issued a new directive, “Guidance on the Collection of Race and Ethnicity by Ambulance Services.”
In this document, the first question to the sick person is not: “Do you want to go to the hospital?” The first question is: “Are you Hispanic/Latino/Spanish?”
Got that? The first question is about race. Dr. King is spinning in his grave right now. Not only are we judged by the color of our skin, but now also by the country of origin of our ancestors. Political Correctness is now invading health care - tell me we didn't see that coming with the rise of ObamaCare?
Perhaps Ambulance Driver or TOTWTYTR can enlighten me, but shouldn't the first question asked have something to do with the patient's, oh, medical issues? I mean, I'm not a medical professional or anything, but to me it would seem that the first thing you'd want to know is "where does it hurt" or "what happened" or even "are there any medications you are allergic to". I would imagine that the country of origin of a patient is something that could wait until later to ascertain.
But no, not to our intellectual superiors. They would rather delay patient care than run the risk of some bean counter being able to point out that [insert minority group here] had a [insert random number] delay in their care. You see, professional victim groups are salivating at the prospect of some poor minority group getting sub-par medical care - it's ZOMG RACISM!!!!!111 They get to sue someone and get the publicity they crave if they find such an instance, so it's certainly to their advantage to find such disparities...
So we wind up being asked our country of origin rather than about or medical condition - how positively enlightened...
That is all.
8 comments:
The dystopian future is now.
Oh! Obama's new campaign slogan!
"I'm not a medical professional or anything, but to me it would seem that the first thing you'd want to know is "where does it hurt" or "what happened" or even "are there any medications you are allergic to"."
Not so much allergies, but you're spot on with the first two.
I would refuse. Race has nothing to do with emergency medical care except in a very few cases - and you can't know if it's relevant until you know what's going on in the first place. Forcing providers to ask about race before anything else is forcing them to negligently delay medical care.
This is absolute stupidity. I hope the EMS agencies in MA refuse to implement it.
Give me a moment to phrase this delicately...
They have lost their fucking minds.
Jay, I knew you lived in a PC, liberal, socialist hellhole, but it has become abundantly clear that the collective brain power of the MA Department of Public Health only consists of three neurons: one's infected, one's infarcted, and the third is inhibitory.
This kind of shit gets laughed off wherever it happens. the difference is, in my state, it would get laughed off at the upper echelons of DPH. In your state, it will fall to the EMTs to ignore it for the useless piece of twaddle that it is.
I take care of all my patients the same way, regardless of race, creed or religion. If anything, I alter my speech and demeanor depending on whom I'm talking to. I don't even mention the patient's race in my reports, unless the race plays a role in their diagnosis or treatment. Some conditions are unique to certain ethnic groups, and certain cultures forbid some of the treatments we may administer.
That's all the role that race plays in the health care I deliver, and the same is true for just about every EMT I know. Even the racist ones (and we have them) give good care, and save their racist diatribes for after we've dropped the patient off at the hospital.
I'd ask the EMT what nationality he (or she) is and then I'd turn around and sue the company for sending too many EMTs of a particular race. My statistics show that { insert nationality here } have greater incidents of { insert complaint here } and I'm being unfairly treated because { insert lame excuse here }.
Absolutely shaky on any reasonable, logical grounds, but certainly more than enough for a big race-based lawsuit.
By-the-way, Ambulance Driver, you look a little { insert race }. Stay the hell away from me if I'm bleeding to death.
One of my teachers in high school told a story of having to take her kid to the ER in Chicago. She was giving the necessary details to the crone behind the desk who was filling out forms. One of the questions was "race?" Teacher (who is obviously Caucasian) said, "human."
"No, no," snaps Nurse Battleaxe. "Is he white, black, Chinese, or something like that?"
"Why does it matter?" teacher wants to learn.
Nurse sighs. "So we can give him the right color blood!"
"But isn't blood red?"
She never did answer the question.
"By-the-way, Ambulance Driver, you look a little { insert race }. Stay the hell away from me if I'm bleeding to death."
How racist of you, North!
I'm sure to all of you [insert ethnic group here], we fat white guys all look alike, but I assure you that is not the case. ;)
"twaddle". Methinks A.D. has been perusing overmuch of UK bloggery.
Can't see it happening here, but if it did, can't see anybody I know complying with this.
But I've been wrong before.
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