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Ambulances are necessary for a few reasons. The obvious ones are acute illness or trauma, where a life threat could develop emergently. Another significant segm

Ambulances are necessary for a few reasons. The obvious ones are acute illness or trauma, where a life threat could develop emergently. Another significant segment of ambulance traffic is psychiatric, where direct monitoring is needed even if there's no likely medical intervention. And another segment is for bariatric or non-ambulatory people. But this service doesn't seem to be for people who need to be transported so much as for people who need transportation. That is, the target for this service isn't the person who has a medical issue that needs to be addressed in transport. It's for people who need a transport and whose destination happens to be medical in nature. That's why it seems to be marketed primarily to medical providers rather than patients, with the benefit of a reduction in missed appointments and an increase in efficiency. If there is a new fleet, then, it's likely that the vehicles would have none of the medical equipment that ambulances do. (Though maybe they'd have more leg room, or a stool to help people in, or other minor accessibility considerations.) I'd also expect that drivers would be specially trained in HIPAA, and probably in recognizing imminent life threats so that they could call 911 in case someone was trying to use them as an ambulance.

ghaff 9y ago
I agree with that. This service also doesn't seem to cover the situation where you don't need an ambulance but you do need to be met by a specified adult (e.g. out-patient surgery).
Tyrek 9y ago
Given our current understanding of Uber's business model, do you really think that 'specially trained' drivers are going to be subject to more than a powerpoint presentation or two?
- GavinMcG 9y ago
  To be honest, it doesn't take much training to understand those two things.
FireBeyond 9y ago
> If there is a new fleet, then, it's likely that the vehicles would have none of the medical equipment that ambulances do. Apropos of anything else, most if not all states require ambulances to be individually licensed as such, and have a specified minimum complement of equipment including but not limited to oxygen, defibrillators, etc. They also require the company/agency to have a overarching license to transport patients. Something tells me, as an EMS provider, that state Departments of Health would likely come down hard on attempts to use (or indeed advertise) this service as such. > and probably in recognizing imminent life threats If you're looking at that, you're probably getting to 80 hours of training (most Basic Life Support courses are around 160-200 of practical and classroom training). I can't imagine Uber doing this, or the liability nightmare that could ensue.
- GavinMcG 9y ago
  You hardly need half an EMT course to learn when to call 911. Those 160 hours include a lot of anatomy and physiology, medical terminology, etc.
  - FireBeyond 9y ago
    Where's the meter? Average citizen should be able to "know when to call 911". What would be the training to recognize "when to call 911" beyond that? And very specifically, if you're talking about wanting to "recognize acute medical emergencies", the half the EMT course I'd be looking at would be exactly the opposite half you mentioned, and more things like "symptoms of acute coronary syndrome", "respiratory distress" and the like. Yes, a non-urgent transport would likely have no need of A&P, etc.
    - GavinMcG 9y ago
      You say that the average citizen should be able to know when to call 911, which is exactly why I'm confused that you'd expect to need 80 hours of training for recognizing imminent life threats.
      - 9y ago

ghaff 9y ago

I agree with that. This service also doesn't seem to cover the situation where you don't need an ambulance but you do need to be met by a specified adult (e.g. out-patient surgery).

Tyrek 9y ago

Given our current understanding of Uber's business model, do you really think that 'specially trained' drivers are going to be subject to more than a powerpoint presentation or two?

GavinMcG 9y ago
To be honest, it doesn't take much training to understand those two things.

FireBeyond 9y ago

> If there is a new fleet, then, it's likely that the vehicles would have none of the medical equipment that ambulances do. Apropos of anything else, most if not all states require ambulances to be individually licensed as such, and have a specified minimum complement of equipment including but not limited to oxygen, defibrillators, etc. They also require the company/agency to have a overarching license to transport patients. Something tells me, as an EMS provider, that state Departments of Health would likely come down hard on attempts to use (or indeed advertise) this service as such. > and probably in recognizing imminent life threats If you're looking at that, you're probably getting to 80 hours of training (most Basic Life Support courses are around 160-200 of practical and classroom training). I can't imagine Uber doing this, or the liability nightmare that could ensue.

GavinMcG 9y ago
You hardly need half an EMT course to learn when to call 911. Those 160 hours include a lot of anatomy and physiology, medical terminology, etc.
- FireBeyond 9y ago
  Where's the meter? Average citizen should be able to "know when to call 911". What would be the training to recognize "when to call 911" beyond that? And very specifically, if you're talking about wanting to "recognize acute medical emergencies", the half the EMT course I'd be looking at would be exactly the opposite half you mentioned, and more things like "symptoms of acute coronary syndrome", "respiratory distress" and the like. Yes, a non-urgent transport would likely have no need of A&P, etc.
  - GavinMcG 9y ago
    You say that the average citizen should be able to know when to call 911, which is exactly why I'm confused that you'd expect to need 80 hours of training for recognizing imminent life threats.
    - 9y ago