[Spooky23]

You're talking about a situation that justifies calling an ambulance. You're probably not qualified to assess the injury, your wife could not move and had an acute injury. The article is describing medical professionals in a clinical environment making medical judgement calls.

Most workplace injuries are not emergencies. Even the example given of a broken hand is not an injury that is helped by an ambulance ride, if anything you are delaying treatment by calling 911 and waiting for an ambulance to be dispatched for a very low priority injury. Most companies have a policy of calling 911 only to avoid liability -- they care more able getting sued for the result of a car accident on the way to the hospital than the employee. In this case Tesla has medical personnel on site who can make subjective judgements and do so with their license at risk.

The other thing being missed is once you're admitted to the hospital for a workplace injury, you're stuck in the Worker's Compensation system and end up in a kafka circle of bureaucracy where as an employee you end up wasting alot of time and potentially alot of money as the insurance companies, independent doctors, etc all fight over pennies.

As far as "there are PLENTY of ambulances to go around" that often is not true, especially when you're talking about a big workplace like a factory where getting in and out will take a long time. My brother is a fireman paramedic who gets bullshit ALS calls all of the time. It's really frustrating when September comes and people in car accidents or serious injuries are left waiting because some panicked coed calls 911 for a passed out drunk friend who is "dying, I don't think she's breathing" every Friday.

I'm no Tesla fanboy, if you look at my comments I'm often harshly critical of them. But IMO this is an article on a boring topic that nobody understands that is ginned up and novel because we're talking about Tesla.

[_ea1k]

I definitely agree with this, especially the last paragraph. I feel like a lot of people responding to this have never really talked to factory workers. There is a lot more ambiguity here than they seem to realize. Unfortunately there is a lot of moral hazard here as well.

[blub]

"Even the example given of a broken hand is not an injury that is helped by an ambulance ride, if anything you are delaying treatment by calling 911 and waiting for an ambulance to be dispatched for a very low priority injury"

The thought processes of some of you genuinely scares me. What happens if the person goes into shock from the pain and loses consciousness in the taxi? How the f do they even put the seatbelt on, if their hand is broken? What kind of small talk will the Lyft driver make with them? "Is that a piece of bone I see peeking there you naughty naughty boy!"

[24gttghh]

I don't want get too involved in this discussion, but in the medical sense, one does not simply "go into shock from the pain". For shock, there needs to be some mechanism that is interrupting the circulatory system and preventing proper blood flow to the tissues of the body[0]. Sure, that mechanism could be something that also causes one to go unconscious. It may be also be an "Acute Stress reaction" [1], and it does not seem to involve a grave threat to the circulatory system. It's psychological. Note: I am not a doctor, and anything I've said here should not be misconstrued as medical advice/diagnosis. I've simply taken a first-aid course.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_(circulatory)

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_stress_reaction

[toast0]

Most people have two hands, and in a pinch can buckle themselves with either. Anyway, the driver or a coworker/onsite medical staff can buckle them in as well.

If the person loses conciousness on the way to the hospital, the driver can either call 911 on the way and arrange a transfer to the ambulance or just pull up to the emergency room and yell / honk / go in to get help getting the person out. Hopefully the onsite clinic would call ahead so that the ER / urgent care knows what to expect.

If the patient is in fairly stable condition, and it's quicker to get them to the hospital with a taxi than an ambulance (because of ambulance priorities), it seems prudent to take a taxi.

I see further in the thread that an ambulance was denied for a back injury, which seems less prudent.

[wiseleo]

Driver is likely not to notice the passenger is unconscious. I completed well over a thousand rides and many of them were with passengers who did not interact with me. Once they are in the rear seats, I do not observe them. Looking at traffic keeps me busy enough.

Driver has no duty to alert ER staff or arrange supplemental transport.

Lyft and Uber could offer medical transport service at an appropriate rate where the driver would get trained and tasked with additional duties.

Navigating into Tesla factory from the freeway takes time. Most drivers will get pinged from the freeway. Unless the driver has been to that facility many times, finding the right pickup point on any large corporate campus is a challenge.

I have transported several people to ER. Those were demanding rides due to elevated risk of passenger causing damage to my car.

Ambulance priority - patient stability Rideshare priority - no damage to the vehicle

As you can see, they are not aligned.

[ameister14]

Are they alone all this time? Why would they be alone in the car?

[Spooky23]

The same thing that happens to a person who is sitting in an office chair waiting 90 minutes for an ambulance to be dispatched for a low-priority injury.

[AndrewBissell]

For a serious injury, the right thing to do is call 911, describe the situation, and let them make the call whether to use an ambulance or private transport. Tesla doesn't want the 911 call because it creates a paper trail for injuries they don't want to report, and because they're desperately low on cash. Part and parcel with the culture of deception at that company.

[Aeolun]

I think you can probably replace the name of the company in this article with anything and people would still be outraged.

[Spooky23]

Really?

~30 people, including several employees have been killed by private garbage haulers unsafely operating in NYC since 2014. That's a pretty serious workplace safety problem that affects the public, but lacks the Tesla clickbait factor and associated hand-waving.

[PhasmaFelis]

> The article is describing medical professionals in a clinical environment making medical judgement calls.

The article describes medical professionals making medical judgment calls, and getting censured or fired for it.

[jonathankoren]

>The other thing being missed is once you're admitted to the hospital for a workplace injury, you're stuck in the Worker's Compensation system and end up in a kafka circle of bureaucracy where as an employee you end up wasting alot of time and potentially alot of money as the insurance companies, independent doctors, etc all fight over pennies.

This is very strange advice. It sounds like you’re arguing that when you’re seriously injured at work, you shouldn’t seek appropriate medical care.

That’s the kind of right out of The Jungle isn’t it?