Grady EMS

Image, that I love, found on the NW wall of Grady Hospital

Alright, lets get this really started!  Sorry, for some reason I have been procrastinating this.  Maybe, it is because I am totally addicted to playing with my new I-phone.


So, before I tell any exciting gory stories I want to explain a little bit about how things work here in Atlanta.  Grady EMS is responsible for the whole city of Atlanta.  It is a very high-volume hospital based service that serves a population of nearly 500,000 people (according to wikipedia) in an area over 132 square miles.  Here they responded to over 120,000 calls in 2009 and I believe I heard that they are projecting that number will be much larger for 2010.


I work with two different preceptors here;  Monday and Tuesday I work 16:45 to 6:30 with a very intelligent paramedic originally from Long Island, NY, but who has been working here for almost 10 years and his partner, who is an EMT-Intermediate from here in GA somewhere.  Then Wednesday through Saturday 18:15 to 4:30 I work with two wild goofy paramedics who have been here for about a year.  The woman, my preceptor, is a short high strung, but funny lady for Alabama and the man, is a country bumpkin from some small GA town.


How our shifts work is; we show up at our scheduled time, find out what truck we have for the night, pick up our equipment (keys, drug box, radios, monitor, etc), then we have 15 minutes to check the truck out (making sure we have everything and that it all works fine) and get "in service".  Once "in service" we are dispatched to specific post via a message sent to a computer screen on the dash.  Throughout the city there are different "posts" (gas stations, school parking lots, etc) where we are strategically placed to wait for calls.  When a call is received it appears on the the computer screen as an address, complaint, and priority.  A priority (1 through 3) is assigned to all calls as to help us know how emergent the problem is.  For example, we do not want to drive lights and sirens to a headache, putting ourselves and other drives in danger.  So, a headache would be assigned a priority 3, not meaning that we will not hurry, but only that we will do so safely.  After we are on our way to the call, we are also able to receive additional information about the age and complaint of the individual via radio.  On an average night we will run anywhere for 3 to 15 calls and drive hundreds of miles zig-zagging back and forth through the city.  Some calls are gruesome, some are sad, and others are just ridiculous, however, it makes for a very interesting and fulfilling job and I am absolutely loving it.