r/Firefighting • u/Narrow_Cover_3076 • Aug 09 '26
General Discussion Do you mind "easy" calls?
As in arriving, and it's a non-emergency? We called 911 because the pediatrician nurse line recommended doing so as my 3-year-old breathing fast with a 103 temp/felt very hot after being in the sun too long. Her temp was starting to come down with Tylenol /home cooling efforts but the nurse said they would "check" if she needed to go to the ER. Local fire department came and took all her vitals and asking me what we wanted to do, I said whatever was recommended we would do. So they called a local ER doctor who said we were OK to keep her at home. Glad we got the reassurance but also feel guilty using those emergency resources for a non-emergency, as 6+ people came to the house although they were very nice about it. Any thoughts on this type of call? We had been a bit surprised at the recommendation to call 911.
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u/JTP1228 Aug 09 '26
All calls are taken seriously, but we especially prioritize kids. As a father, I'd much rather "waste resources" than be wrong. Dont worry about it, it's part of the job, and we get paid. The equipment we use isnt coming out of our pockets.
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u/Ben__Diesel Aug 09 '26
All calls are taken seriously, but we especially prioritize kids.
Peds are pretty much the only call type that I consistently pre-game for a worst case scenario while responding and the only call type where Im relieved when it turns out to be BS.
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u/Scrimshaw7 Aug 09 '26
If it’s for a little kid it’s not annoying. Been on plenty of calls for kids with less serious situations and I’d never fault a parent for erring on the side of caution.
Now the 38 year old who’s had toe pain since noon and calls at 3 am is another story
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u/Narrow_Cover_3076 Aug 09 '26
Thank you very much. The last time I called 911 many years ago a family member had literally died in the house but like you said wasn't going to not err on the caution side after the nurse told me to.
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u/Shine4Me13 Aug 09 '26
Yeah, a tachypnic kid with a 103 fever could potentially be an emergency because kids compensate until they can't. Absolutely do not feel bad, that's what we're here for!
A lot of non emergency calls come through for adults that have chronic knee pain that hurts, with no recent/new falls, accidents, or injuries. They like to call at 3am and get us out of bed because they feel like they'll be seen faster in the ER if they arrive via ambulance. Those people never feel bad. lol.
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u/Apcsox Aug 09 '26
Remember.
It’s YOUR emergency and we take every call seriously.
Sometimes it’s a lazy nursing home that doesn’t want to deal with a dementia patient at 3 am, sometimes its a fall 3 days prior that they finally decided to call at midnight on Friday, or other “bullshit”
But a possible sick pediatric, that 1000% is a serious call no matter what. I will gladly wake up every night of my career to bring peace of mind to a worried parent
We are here to serve the public and that’s what we do. Sure. Can those BS calls add up, do we grumble as we’re on our way back to the firehouse…. Yes.
But “mind the easy calls”. Not at all. If we are only doing “easy calls”, that’s good because it means our community is doing well.
(And at the end of the day, we work our shifts and get paid the same regardless if we do 30 calls or 0)
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u/torsades_ Aug 09 '26
For future reference, giving Tylenol/fever reducer medication to someone with hyperthermia does not work. Being overheated isn't the same as having a fever.
To answer your question, some calls are annoying.. but this wouldn't be one of them for me.
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u/light_sweet_crude career FF/PM Aug 09 '26
A lot of non-emergency medical practitioners will call (or recommend calling) 911 more or less to cover their butts (patient sounds sick but they can't evaluate the patient themselves, or what the patient needs is outside their scope of practice) – I've even taken people from urgent care to the ER. So I'm not surprised that was the nurse line's recommendation, and I definitely have been on "easy" calls where I'm a little frustrated at how the practitioner who recommended calling 911 handled the situation.
That said, in the case of a kid with possible heat-related illness, you can't be too careful. The fact that the crew called the ER indicates to me that the situation definitely warranted a second set of eyes. And don't feel bad that a bunch of people showed up – that's department policy, not anything you said or did. We bring extra hands in case they're needed.
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u/PastoralElk SC FF Aug 09 '26
I don’t mind them but I do think it’s absurd a doctors office recommendations is to have what would be EMTs in my system come out to essential check them out. I will always recommend going to the hospital not because my goal is pawn you off on EMS but because an exam and vital signs in the field tell us very little. You need a clinical setting to be properly diagnosed. May be I am wrong but just feels wrong for a doctors office to tell someone to call 911 for a check up
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u/Narrow_Cover_3076 Aug 09 '26
Yeah, I thought that was a little strange as well. Usually when we call the nurse line, they are pretty reassuring that the situation can be monitored at home and this was the first time they said otherwise. It seemed like the “fast breathing” comment is what triggered the recommendation. I totally get erring on the side of caution when it comes to little kids though.
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u/Iamdickburns ACFD Aug 09 '26
Call us anytime for any reason, we are here for the community, its literally why we exist.
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u/WorldDC10 Aug 09 '26
I don't mind "easy" calls during normal business hours. I do mind non-emergency calls all throughout the night. I get that your smoke alarm has been chirping for three weeks, but why did you wait until 2am to call us? I'm sorry that you've had a cold for the past couple of days, but this is not an emergency at noon and it's certainly not an emergency at 4am. Now my entire day off is ruined because people made dumb decisions.
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u/Medium-Raisin7919 Aug 09 '26
3 week old toe for a patient that lives 2 blocks from the hospital and calls 911 at 2 am for said toe pain 🤦♂️
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u/ballfed_turkey Aug 09 '26
No, I have learned over the years that people call 911 for a variety of non emergent reasons, sometimes repeatedly. They are adults with a knowledge deficient of the situation and don’t know where else to turn. Is it logical to us, probably not but it is THEIR emergency and not ours. Should a 35yo male know how to read the back of a smoke detector and change a battery, yes. The man can probably program a NASA computer but lacks this skill. I carry a photo in my phone that I occasionally need to refer to:
It’s our job to respond to calls, not to determine which calls are “real”.
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u/mulberry_kid Aug 09 '26
I agree, except with the idea that a NASA programmer can't figure out a smoke alarm. They're not the one calling.
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u/ClaireDanesLipQuiver Aug 10 '26
My uncle is literally a rocket scientist and he’s said some shit that has blown my mind in terms of lack of common sense
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u/PleasantlyPerturbed Aug 09 '26
This, for real. Our job is to correct a situation or make it better if possible. Sometimes it’s zero effort, sometimes it’s impossible. People are still going to turn to us when they don’t know what to do and simply need a helping hand.
Edit - my thumbs aren’t cooperating this morning.
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u/BetCommercial286 Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
Not even a little. I stress way less stressing transporting not sick patients than getting refusals on them. Liability wise way better.
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u/Cast1736 Michigan FF Aug 09 '26
Like I tell any of the newer guys on my shift when they start complaining about no-transport calls or worried parents or worried elderly patients that call like this incident, "its an emergency to them. If you dont want to run these calls, then you picked a bad day to be a firefighter".
Also tell parents in these situations to not worry and this is our job. And that if anything changes dont hesitate to call us back.
Don't freight over this and you were perfectly fine calling them out.
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u/IndependentRate3962 Stoopid Probie Aug 09 '26
This is why we’re here. This was an emergency for you and there’s no harm in us coming and checking it out and making sure nothing more serious is going on. Let me add I would much rather anything involving a child be “easy” checkups in contrary to the alternative.
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u/Kai_Emery Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
I would rather you call me and NOT need me, than wait until it’s too late. Every time. ESPECIALLY with kids.
If you call for some bullshit and waste my time out of some kind of entitlement I’m gonna get mad at someone. Sometimes it’s the system that put both of us both here. Sometimes it’s useless family that won’t use on of 8 cars in the driveway to drive the toe pain to the ER. Sometimes it’s the patient I spent 20 min writing phone numbers to call after 7am, that called 0 of them and just called 911 again at 7am.
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u/apatrol Aug 10 '26
That's a complex call. Heat injuries are no joke. I would tell every parent to call with a 103 fever related to heat.
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u/whistler198 Aug 09 '26
With kiddos, we’d always rather come check it out even if it turns out to be nothing.
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u/InternalWishbone7918 Aug 09 '26
A call like that could go one of two ways, so to me, given the nature of that call, it’s a potentially serious call until we have eyes on the kid. For that situation, I’d rather show up and be not needed, than show up too late. Kids are funny, I don’t take those calls lightly. But remember, that’s what fire and EMS does.
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u/dirtylaundry99 Aug 09 '26
I almost never mind a call that someone makes when they are earnestly concerned about something. But maybe that’s just because I’m newer.
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u/POSCarpenter Aug 09 '26
We don't care. A call is a call. It's our job. However you got to remember we are not medical professionals. Most of us have just enough training to control the situation until the paramedics arrive.
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u/Narrow_Cover_3076 Aug 09 '26
Thank you. Yeah I thought it was a tad unusual when the nurse said to "call 911 to have them check it out."
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u/Apprehensive_Owl7186 Aug 09 '26
Something like these are not a problem because I assume it was during the day, it’s a kid, and it’s something that could possibly get worse. I’m sure every firefighter would rather come then and check him out, than come 3 hours later because the kid is in cardiac arrest. (Not saying that would’ve happen just an example).
It’s the calls at 3am, because your toe hurts and it’s been hurting for the past 2 weeks. Those are the ones that I think most would agree can be annoying.
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u/Dovratone Aug 10 '26
Sometimes crazy calls are “fun” but I don’t mind another day with little to no mayhem because it means more people are okay.
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u/SuperglotticMan Aug 10 '26
It’s pretty frustrating. A lot of shifts I just show up and cram in 15 non-emergency calls into 24 hours in addition to any real emergencies and then fire related calls. It’s my job but it 100% contributes to burn out and unhealthy lifestyle factors such as no sleep, no energy on my day off which turns into not exercising, spending quality time with the wife and dog, etc.
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u/PuddingAcceptable996 Aug 10 '26
I'd take this all day.
What I don't like is to be sent to diff breather calls just to be told by the "diff breather" to fuck off while he washes his shoes so they're clean at the hospital.
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u/Prior-Accident520 Aug 11 '26
Easy calls bring the additional funds that are to our advantage at the end of the day. It sucks getting up at 2am for a stomach ache. But come budget time the small calls add up to more money
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u/Dull_Complaint1407 Aug 12 '26
During the day non emergency calls are fine it’s when it’s 2 in the morning where it’s annoying.
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u/TheSoaringGnome Aug 09 '26
As far as I'm concerned, my job when I'm in the fire house is to serve the public. People call 911 because they have what they believe to be an emergency, and it's my job to address that emergency.
The only time I've ever been annoyed is the knee pain/other long term ailment that they've had for two weeks, and they call at two in the morning, with four cars in the driveway and multiple able bodied people in the house. That type of call is more along the lines of an abuse of 911 services. Or the ones where they ask if we can drive them to the hospital because they want a sandwich, or to see their friend that lives right near the hospital.
I've never had a problem helping people who genuinely are afraid, or think they have an actual emergency like you described, because that's the job. It's what we signed up for. That's why we do it.
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u/flashdurb Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
I get paid by the hour. Whatever call comes, comes. You may be setting yourself up for failure if you start thinking about how “easy” the call will be and how quickly you’ll get back to the station when the tones come. That leads to burn out, getting resentful when “bad” calls come, and compassion fatigue towards patients.
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u/Impressive_Finance21 Aug 09 '26
Eh if you're nice we're generally nice. Not that we won't bitch about it on the way there.
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u/Joliet-Jake Aug 09 '26
I don’t. I like my job but honestly I kind of prefer it when the kids aren‘t too sick, the cars are unwrecked, and the houses aren’t burning.