Comments on: Request for ideas on a problem – Can we be paid enough already?

By: Fire Daily

Fire Daily — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:06:56 +0000

Here, Chris.

I was going to keep it all for myself, but turns out I have a horseshoe up my kiester. I won two more lotteries, one in the Philippines and one in Nigeria.

No, No, No, please don't thank me..
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOU HAVE WON 750,000 Euro

You have been awarded 750,000 euro in the SWISS LOTTO NETHERLANDS Satellite Software email lottery in which e-mail addresses are picked randomly by Software powered by the Internet through the worldwide website.

Your email address was amongst those chosen this year for the SWISS LOTTO NETHERLANDS Satellite lottery. And this promotional program is proudly sponsored by the SWISS-LOTTO NETHERLANDS organization.

Your email address attached to Ref Number 14, 17, 18, 435, 7, with Serial Number 1869-12 drew the Lucky Numbers 10, and consequently won the lottery in the "A" Category. You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of 750,000 euro.

Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our European booklet representative office. In View of this, your winning prize of 750,000 euro will be released to you by our accredited fiduciary agent located In the Netherlands. Our European accredited fiduciary agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate the remittance of your winning prize as soon as you contact them.

This promotion takes place annually. For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning details confidential till your claims is dully processed and your winning prize remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your winning prize. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted the abuse of this program by some unscrupulous elements.

To file for your claim, please contact our fiduciary agent:

Mr. John Smith
Email: fakeremitdept@aol.nl
Tel: +31-64-799-4455
Fax: +31-84-799-4701

Provide him with the information’s as stated below:

(1) Name:
(2) Address:
(3) Marital:
(4) Age:
(5) Sex:
(6) Nationality:
(7) Country of Residence:
(8) Occupation:
(9) Telephone Number:
(10)Fax Number:
(11)Draw Lucky Number:
(12) Ref Number:
(13) Serial Number:

These details facilitate the due process and the release of your winnings prize, to avoid unnecessary delays and complications in the processing of your winning prize. Always remember to quote your Reference, serial and Lucky Numbers in all your correspondences with your designated fiduciary agent.

Congratulations once more from all members and staff of this program and Thank you for being part of our 2009 promotional program.
Sincerely,

Mr. Kenneth Gram
Online Games Director
SWISS LOTTO NETHERLANDS
Dijkstraat 40
4322 AA, Scharendijke,
Netherlands.
.

By: Fire Daily

Fire Daily — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:06:56 +0000

By: Fire Daily

Fire Daily — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:06:56 +0000

By: mr618

mr618 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:06:10 +0000

One of the big problems, though by no means the only problem, is the insurance industry. Their profit is based on income (premiums) minus expenses (reimbursements and other payments) minus overhead. As we have seen in the news, insurance companies have some huge overhead, in the forms of salaries and bonuses. Some insurance companies pay bonuses to employees for cancelling policies! (See, for instance, Gina Hamilton's piece in The Coastal Journal (Maine), "The Cost of a Public Option in Health Care": http://www.coastaljournal.com/website/news/anal...)

As long as the insurance industry has a disincentive to make payments -- to patients, doctors, or EMS systems -- the EMS world will continue to be underfunded, making reasonable salaries for paramedics impossible.

Falling tax revenues and increasing mandated governmental expense (like school appropriations, etc) reduce the funding government has available, leading to layoffs, generally in the emergency services ("They only go out 4-5 times a day, why do we need them?"... instead of laying off a useless Deputy Assistant Commissioner In Charge of Counting Paperclips and Issuing Incomprehensible Memoranda). And there are really only two ways of increasing tax revenue: get people back to work, or raise tax rates (and institute new taxes).

As for working in the ER, here in Maine our local hospital hires a relatively large number of moonlighting EMT-Is and Paramedics as ER Techs. The nurses don't mind; in fact, they love it. Increasing workloads, coupled with the national shortage of nurses, leaves a growing gap in service delivery. The Intermediates and Paramedics fill some of that gap and take some of the stress of the horrendously overworked nurses.

It isn't an easy problem to solve, but perhaps the current EMS 2.0 debate might come up with some useful ideas.

By: totwtytr

totwtytr — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:25:08 +0000

No, I don't see working in the ED as an option. First of all, the nurses won't stand for it. Unionized nurses will file grievances, non unionized ones will lobby the state to make it illegal. Nor would you actually want the job from the bits I've read about places that have done it.

I've said it before in response to people who bemoan the "paramedic shortage", but it bears repeating.

There is NO PARAMEDIC SHORTAGE. There is a shortage of people who are paramedics who are willing to do a very difficult job for the poor pay, generally non existent benefits, crappy hours, physical and emotional stress, and difficult family/personal lives that being in EMS generally demands. That explains why people go to paramedic school, but leave the field one way or another in a relatively short period of time.

If you really want to fix the problem, then unionize. The problem is that sometimes the fix is worse than the original problem.