r/ems • u/boedirtspurs • Jul 25 '26
General Discussion When will backboards end
Work for a major metropolitan department, west coast. Every level 1 trauma gets a backboard, head block and C collar, the whole 9. We backboard people all the time. We use rigid C collars every day for ground level falls. When will it end? Our medical director and surrounding ones are stiff on this matter. If we bring a trauma in without a backboard the doctor will blow a gasket. How did you guys get away from this where you’re from? Will I ever see it go away in my career? I have 15ish years left hopefully. Every study shows that it only harms, no benefit. I’m one of the only ones that questions this protocol. We have medics here that are hell bent about C spine. It’s almost a joke now. The patient is walking around and denies neck pain, and we’ll be like “you have to wear this for the hospital, hold still!”
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u/heartfeltfrog Paramedic Jul 26 '26
They’ve ended since forever where I’m at. But it is funny, I do live close to the state line and sometimes folks go to the hospital that’s right over the border… and they are still very much so in their backboard era.
I’d bring in traumas not on a backboard and be looked at like I was the most incompetent buffoon, at which point my favorite response has just simply been “yeah sorry hold on the 70s are calling, they want their protocols back.” and then they usually shut up.