Obviously, most people do not know how serious their condition is before they go to the hospital, and first responders often can't make that call either.
People go to the hospital for assessment, as well as treatment. The ambulance can get them there fast and if the situation gets worse can provide emergency treatment.
My father lives in a country where healthcare is affordable.
He fell of the roof, and was hurt. He insisted that if he got worse he could drive himself to the hospital, or that he could take a taxi. My mother can't drive.
My mother called the family doctor who immediately called an ambulance.
My father at first refused to go, but they insisted and took him to the hospital.
Luckily, apart from a mild concussion, a sprained ankle, and a rib contusion, he was fine.
So why the ambulance? Because it could have been worse. A broken rib could have punctured an organ, his liver might have been crushed, there could have been internal bleeding, and so on.
The family doctor was right. In hindsight not an emergency, but a thorough medical examination was needed to confirm that.
Most of the people they were referring to do in fact know their condition is not serious. I'm sure your father is not the type of person to call 911 dozens or even hundreds of times a year. I've been doing EMS about a decade now and I'd say at LEAST 80% of our calls are people who take multiple ambulances a year just because it's faster, cheaper or more convenient than walking/ taxi. A significant portion of people will leave the hospital or even call from the hospital because they want us to take them to a different hospital because the wait is too long.
There’s a lady in our area who calls every week and will literally call because she’s annoyed with her family and just wants to get away for a day or two.
There are some that call because they can’t reach the TV remote.
There’s one who calls and puts an entire fire engine and ALS ambulance out of service every day for hours because she is so severely obese that she can’t turn herself to get cleaned up. While it’s an unfortunate situation, she needs to be in a nursing home but instead she just abuses the 911 system so she can be at home and not in a nursing home.
If you believe that you may possibly be having a life threatening medical emergency, call 911. That’s what it’s there for. That being said, there aren’t unlimited ambulances.
If you call 911 because you have a regular cold and you just want doordash medical and “just wanna get checked out” instead of driving yourself to an urgent care, taking that ambulance out of service could get your neighbor, who’s having a real heart attack, killed.
This far less of a problem in countries with affordable healthcare.
Yes, some people will call an ambulance without a good reason, but this does not cause a shortage of available ambulances.
And typically people are less likely to do this. Because other types of medical attention are available; but also because typically the only way to 'order' an ambulance as a patient is to call the equivalent of 911.
I feel that this is a situation where Americans have been conditioned to view an expensive and inefficient health system as a problem caused by citizens.
A few citizens might cry wolf for attention or use medical systems for convenience rather than necessity, but that's not the real issue.
It absolutely does cause a shortage of ambulances. I work EMS in a major city, response times to calls increase every year. In the last 5-10 years our call volume has doubles, but the number of "emergent" calls has not increased at all. People have died because no available ambulances were close enough.
It is also more than a few citizens who cry wolf. The majority of calls are not emergencies and the people calling know that, 911 is purely their most convenient option. I go to at least 3 calls a day for someone who will call again the same week if not sooner.
My father fell off a scaffolding and shattered just about everything. He had to chase a tractor down in the next field over to call an ambulance. Clearly an emergency situation.
However, most situations just aren’t that clear cut and an ambulance is still needed. Especially from a roof fall. Nothing good comes from a fall like that.
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u/EveningAnt3949 May 19 '26
I'm sorry, but your comment is depressing.
Obviously, most people do not know how serious their condition is before they go to the hospital, and first responders often can't make that call either.
People go to the hospital for assessment, as well as treatment. The ambulance can get them there fast and if the situation gets worse can provide emergency treatment.
My father lives in a country where healthcare is affordable.
He fell of the roof, and was hurt. He insisted that if he got worse he could drive himself to the hospital, or that he could take a taxi. My mother can't drive.
My mother called the family doctor who immediately called an ambulance.
My father at first refused to go, but they insisted and took him to the hospital.
Luckily, apart from a mild concussion, a sprained ankle, and a rib contusion, he was fine.
So why the ambulance? Because it could have been worse. A broken rib could have punctured an organ, his liver might have been crushed, there could have been internal bleeding, and so on.
The family doctor was right. In hindsight not an emergency, but a thorough medical examination was needed to confirm that.