It may be too soon, but that has never stopped me from putting my foot into my mouth before.

Last night my partner and I were discussing if we were “Essential” or “Expendable”. This was prompted by greeting a Nurse at the ED who we had not seen in over two weeks. He told us that one of the patients we had brought (for non-CoVid symptoms) in had tested positive and since he had had close contact with the Patient had been put on isolation for 14 days. (For him it was 7 days of pay for the days he missed while staying in the hotel near the hospital.)

We decided that “Essential” is a position that has to be filled by a qualified trained person or the mission/job can not be completed (either effectively or safely) and is highly valued.

“Expendable” is a position that has to be filled to complete the mission, has minimal qualifications (if any) and is not valued.

So which were we

People praise all the “essential” workers who stock the shelves and fix the food, sell liquor, gas and lotto tickets. They line up at windows to clap and cheer Medical providers going to the hospital and care centers, call them heroes and send free food to them.

But are businesses (and hospitals and governments are businesses) treating all these “essential” workers equally? If not, is it because they don’t really see those treated less equal as “essential” but rather “expendable”?

Lets look

The hospitals in our area notify the RN’s who have had unprotected contact with a positive patient, have identified special RN’s to carry out most of the care for positive patients with extra PPE. If they get exposed they are put up in a hotel, assigned computer work and get daily check ups while paid the normal wages.

The main fire department notifies the Fire Fighter of an positive contact, allows them to draw workers comp and plus it up with sick time. (and are working to get that time restored due to the crisis) They are sent home and get daily medical checks and extra cleaning supplies.

By all standards they are treated as essential.

However

Grocery clerks...find out they were exposed when they get sick. Don’t have sick time, seldom get workers comp, and are sent home to tough it out. (yes there are some managers who are going far and above, but that is what most of these “essential” workers get).

Gas Station attendants...have been fired for not coming in when sick.

Appliance Factory workers, have been given one mask and told to wash their hands. They can use sick time but need a note from a doctor to show they are not abusing Paid Time Off.

Amazon Warehouse workers...It is a great time to get fired for daring to get sick or speaking out about it.

It seems these above are also told “we can get someone else to do the job, there are lots of people out of work right now.” as a reason they should not complain, call in, or express worry.

But what about EMS?

EMS in about half of urban areas and a quarter of the rest of the nation are separate from the Fire (or Police) departments. This includes “Contracted Private Services” who fill the roll that a Government run EMS program. (It would be like hiring a private company to cover your fire departments or mail delivery needs).

We work in a Third Service.

We were never notified we had a possible exposer. (To be fair, the hospitals don’t like to share that information due to the HIPPA law on patient privacy because two lawyers will give you three understandings on if it is legal)

We go to the home, are in the home, handle the patient to the stretcher, carry them to the ambulance, sit in the back less than three feet from them (my VANbulance is just over 5 feet side to side), have a very small exhaust fan for the back, spend 5 to 30 minutes (depending on location they want to go to that is not on diversion) in transport with them, then at the hospital have 20 minutes to give a report to the RN, Doctor, place the patient into a bed, clean up, restock, clean the squad, disinfect, complete the report and go available for the next call.

If we get sick, we can use our sick time but need a doctors note if more than three days. (and get pressure from supervisors about how we are “screwing over our buddies”) If we think we have been exposed, and staffing allows, they will try to give us days off. If we show symptoms we can use our sick time. (they say they are working to see if we can get the fire fighter workers comp deal).

We are expected to work 12 to 16 hours each shift, be limited in our use of PPE, and maintain a spotless squad and 100% correct documentation to include billing information. (we get more emails about incomplete billing than anything else.) And are expected to be in the Squad the entire shift (no buildings to stage in).

We often get told that they are always getting applications to fill vacancies...but we are always short staff for some reason. (Lack of Billing information is likely the reason for this, it seems to be why we don’t have new equipment, updated computers, radios, etc.)

I think we meet the status of an “expendable”.

One other difference

Did I mention pay? Nurses in our state average $30 an hour start. Fire Fighters $27 start.

Grocery Clerks $9 to $10 an hour average start, Amazon Warehouse $17.50, GE Appliance $16 to $18 start.

EMT Basic $10.75 average (Cleveland is $10.50, — exempted from the City $15 minimum; Cincinnati is $12.03)

Paramedic 14.50 national average, with $16 to $17 normal start in this area.

PS

just three days ago we got our first donation of free food from a local place...well, sort of. The FIre Department did not know what to do with 100 meals for the 40 on staff and the friges were full, so they dropped them off at our central and the supervisors tried to rotate people though to pick it up when they could.