Location planning and medical services

[ATCclears]

For your location planning. For me, I'll want to be within 90 minutes of a population center of 250,000+.


At least 4.5 million people nationwide live in an ambulance desert, where they are farther than a 25-minute drive from an ambulance station, according to a 2023 study. In Nebraska, more than 80% of emergency medical providers are volunteers working in sparsely populated areas where there are too few calls to justify having full-time staff, according to a 2019 study.

"I think that the majority of the American people do not understand how different it is out there," said Andy Gienapp, deputy executive director of the National Association of State EMS Officials.

Rural ambulance services have been strained by a largely unprofitable business model, the pressure of the pandemic and recent struggles to hire people willing to undertake extensive training and work a high-pressure job for free, emergency medical personnel say.

Most state and local governments aren't required to fund ambulance services the way they do law-enforcement offices.

Your Ambulance Is on the Way. ETA: 65 Minutes.

Rural patients can wait an hour or more for emergency responders because of strained services.

www.wsj.com

Read More

 

[Nosferatu]

90 minutes away is just in time for them to get there and pronounce you dead.

Services like this didn't even make the consideration when we shopped for property in MT. You don't move into the woods and expect the city to do things for you.

 

[bradsteen]

My in-laws live with us and one has some pretty big medical issues, so proximity to an ER was factored in during our last home search. But to @Nosferatu 's point, if you want to live out in the sticks, you'll probably be making a compromise on proximity to emergency medical services. If proximity is important to you, 90 minutes might be acceptable for doctors visits but an ER trip you would probably want something closer.

 

[Jay Walk]

Haaa. the migrants are using the ER as primary medical care.
You're not getting in unless you flat line out in the hallway.

 

[Bacchus]

How about if I dress as a migrant? I need to start assembling my Emergency Medical Services Entrance Costume now.

 

[Angie]

We are 15 minutes from two ERs (one in either direction), but certainly not 90 minutes from a 250K+ population center!

I agree that medical facilities should be a consideration when you choose a location to live, especially if you are looking for a forever home. We took that into consideration for sure. We have a choice of local doctors, and our son-in-law is a P.A. He is 4 miles away. But the idea of living 90 minutes from a major population hub is a no-go for me. We have two towns in each direction an hour away that have about 80K people. That's big enough for me. The more people nearby mean more zombies roaming around looking for food and supplies when SHTF. We all pick our priorities. Living near a large population in the event we may need some obscure medical specialist is not one of them.

 

[Longwalkhome]

I have been dealing with the medical community for a few months now and it's not good.

Wish you all the best of luck should you need their help.

 

[brandonlamb]

Hopefully this doesnt come across the wrong way, but there is a harsh truth I think here...

If SHTF, medical and other emergency services are likely going to be overwhelmed right away. If you, your family, a friend, whoever, has major medical issues or requires medication that you are not able to get a backstop of... you may need to realize and acknowledge that not everyone is going to make it. I've had to have these internal dialogues about my parents, grandparents, and other family/friends. People will die, the unfortunate and ugly truth when it comes to this stuff. And just parroting other youtubers for the most part here, I'm just a dumbass in Seattle.

I would opine that it seems naive and almost an oxymoron to try to find a place for survival/preparedness, being outside the system, offgrid, but also wanting to be within city/emergency services reach. When the zombies rise and the balloons go up, nobody is coming to save us.

It's a tough but real conversation.

So, what are other solutions then? For me, one of my family members used to be a nurse and we have built a medical wall with supplies (from bandaids to wound care buckets, surgery kits, and antibiotics). I've taken various gunshot would and TCCC/MARCH/Stop the Bleed courses. But for my dad and the likely inability to get diabetes meds, the harsh reality is that it will be cross fingers and hope he gets by.

 

[jdtaylor45]

I'm an RN. I''ve worked 38 years in the profession. I can tell you that when SHTF happens, hell, most any weekend at the bigger level 1 trauma centers, you are not going to get seen unless you have a large bullet hole or penetrating chest wound. In New Orleans, it was not uncommon to see 10 GSW patients a night. So any patient with vague abdominal pain, fever or non- eminent death would wait for a long, long time for treatment. That said, for any real emergency event, I'll say to plan ahead of time. Take a first aid class at the local junior college, set up a community support group to obtain help when bad things happen. For a SHTF event, the trauma system will be the first thing to collapse. I was working the ER at USAMC in AL when the worst Amtrak disaster in history occured. We were overwhelmed and had to go on divert to less qualified medical facilities. This one train accident crashed the system for most of the hospitals in the tri-state area.

 

[Idaho44]

What happen to "Obama Care"? WHO really benefited from that? If you are over 50, medical care/access should be a high priority in location selection combined with weather and traffic conditions!

 

[WillametteWill]

Good thoughts in the OP to consider. We did when moving to our current location. Having lived in SoCal most of my life it was a complete non-issue and many folks in urban have no concept of services in more rural areas. As we age, it is not just emergency services that need to be considered.

I'm an RN. I''ve worked 38 years in the profession. I can tell you that when SHTF happens, hell, most any weekend at the bigger level 1 trauma centers, you are not going to get seen unless you have a large bullet hole or penetrating chest wound. In New Orleans, it was not uncommon to see 10 GSW patients a night. So any patient with vague abdominal pain, fever or non- eminent death would wait for a long, long time for treatment. That said, for any real emergency event, I'll say to plan ahead of time. Take a first aid class at the local junior college, set up a community support group to obtain help when bad things happen. For a SHTF event, the trauma system will be the first thing to collapse. I was working the ER at USAMC in AL when the worst Amtrak disaster in history occured. We were overwhelmed and had to go on divert to less qualified medical facilities. This one train accident crashed the system for most of the hospitals in the tri-state area.

This is a good reminder of how fragile and on the edge so many of our services that we take for granted truly are. Whether it is the "just in time" logistics that we saw fail during covid or when emergency services are stretched, it pays to be prepared as we can. Great info @jdtaylor45

 

[oremike]

I don't worry so much about how far I am from a hospital. I just live my life, try to not get hurt and deal with stuff as it happens.

 

[Jay Walk]

Park your RV in the hospital parking lot and you are still not getting in.
Ask anyone who has been to the ER in the past couple of years.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Park your RV in the hospital parking lot and you are still not getting in.
Ask anyone who has been to the ER in the past couple of years.

It's always been better than socialist countries where you're put on a two year waiting list for a bunion consultation.