Help! I’ve been ramped!
I had something rather interesting happen to me this week – I was ramped!
While ramping is not an uncommon process every day in Australia, it is one that usually annoys / frustrates and infuriates ambulance staff more than anyone else.
What is ramping?
From the health and community services union:
“Ramping occurs when patients are forced to wait on an Ambulance stretcher in a hospital corridor before being admitted into the Emergency Department.
During ramping, Ambulance Officers are unable to leave the hospital and respond to ambulance cases, and in some cases Ambulances have been “Ramped” for up to six hours at a time.”
My ramping experience occurred when I escorted a patient with a Subarachnoid Haemorrhage to another hospital, where the patient had been accepted by neurosurg. On arrival, guess what? Oh yes they had been accepted, however there was no bed – so there we stood, ramped with a heap of other ambulances in the emergency dept.
“How much fun is ramping?” I hear you ask…. Well, let me describe it to you. First, you stand there in the hallway… and then you stand there a bit more. Time goes by, and you keep on standing there. Later, your patient runs out of portable oxygen so you get another canister. Then the monitor’s batteries run low, so you go grab some more from the ambulance. Then they get CHEST PAIN… and still you wait, while administering morph/GTN etc & monitor for ECG variances… Oh yes, these things all happened to me! Occasionally you move a little up the line… You stand around and stand around – eventually the patient needs to pee, and so on and so forth….
Fortunately my ramping experience was only an hour and a half, sometimes these guys wait waaaaaay longer than that.
Here’s an interesting letter to the editor on ramping from the journal of emergencies, trauma and shock.
Ramping for sometimes short periods and other times many hours happens pretty much every day at my hospital lately. Needless to say I have a greater appreciation of what the ambulance crews have to put up with on a daily basis. Hopefully it’s something that can be dealt in the near future, & a situation I won’t have to go through again too soon!
Absolutely insane. Talk about patient safety. Hell, talk about simple cooth!
I would suggest that the next time someone in ‘upper’ management gets sick.. and needs admitted.
The should be ramped.
See how long ‘ramping’ lasts after that.
Geesh.
@Sean – Hi, thanks for visiting! I know, it’s completely nuts! The only circumstance where they’re allowed to leave their ramped patients is to attend a cat 1, ie someone who is pulseless and lifeless…
The rest of the time the ambo’s are completely responsible for patient care in the corridor until a bed becomes available. You make a great point regarding upper management – it’s all very well until they have to experience it themselves, so to speak! Rack em and ramp em!