DC FEMS: Just Take Off and Nuke the Site From Orbit

It’s the only way to be sure.

I used to post a good bit about the follies of what passes for an EMS system in our nation’s capitol. I don’t anymore, because frankly, they’re too easy a target. There’s no sport in it, and constantly pointing out how bad they suck is akin to picking on the slow kid in your neighborhood. They can’t help the fact that their organization is pathetic. It’s institutionalized over there. They’re the most dysfunctional organization in a town that also houses the U.S. Congress.

I mean, at least Detroit Fire EMS has an excuse for being the second-worst system in the country. They have no friggin’ money, on top of mismanagement that starts with Detroit city government and trickles all the way down to the Fire Department. But DC FEMS (pronounced “eff EMS”) has no such excuse; they suck with plenty of money.

But if refusing to respond as a man dies from a heart attack on the sidewalk across the street from the firehouse wasn’t bad enough, this week we have two medics bickering in front of a patient to the point that she felt safer taking the Metro to the hospital:

A D.C. woman who called 911 ended up getting out of an ambulance and taking Metro to a hospital after the paramedics started arguing, she said.

Rose Preston thought she was having a stroke when she began experiencing numbness and tingling on the left side of her face during around 2 a.m. March 15. She called 911, but once she was inside the ambulance, two members of the D.C. Fire & EMS crew began having a heated argument.

“They were constantly bickering back and forth with one another, and to the point that I felt so uncomfortable,” she said.

Preston wasn’t sure what the two men were arguing about, but said it seemed to be personal.

(emphasis mine)

It is becoming increasingly obvious that the incompetence and poor leadership at DC FEMS has trickled down to the crews. I mean, hey, why behave like professionals when your own chief publicly accuses his crews of ducking calls and setting their ambulances on fire?

It may be that a change of leadership will not right the culture at DC FEMS, hence the post title.

It’s the only way to be sure.