New EMT team caught rehab facility incompitence. Would love second opinions on what we could have done better.
So, as a bit of background, I've been working at IFT for about 5 months. Last week, my partner (whose first day was today) and I picked up a patient from a rehab facility. PT was full code and had a prior CVA and hypertension history. V/S were 100/50, HR 52, 02 95% (within what we are allowed to transport for IFT calls). Rehab summary stated she was at the rehab place for 3 weeks, recovering from a stroke, and failed to get better. The nurse said PT was A&Ox4, but while I was doing my assessment, I noticed she was drifting in and out of consciousness, almost like she was about to faint. Her daughter was there and told us she has never acted this way.
This whole situation felt unfathomably fucked to me, so I asked the nurse to show me her vitals for the whole 3 weeks and the specific list of meds and doses she was given. Sure enough, until about 4 hours ago, BP was trending high, 160s/170s over 90s/100s, HR was trending in the high 90s, and O2 was trending 99-100%. The only change was that the nurse gave her a new BP medication right before we arrived. I know next to nothing about medications other than those within my scope, but the administration time and dose given didn't sound correct.
I told my dispatch everything, and they told me to alert the nursing station and tell the daughter to call 911. I did, and she asked me if I could take her mom instead of a 911 team. I wasn't sure if we were allowed to, so I asked my dispatch, and they told me to let the local 911 guys handle it. Now, on the one hand, I get it. Neither my partner nor I have ever run an emergency and did not know the area. Not only that, but I am a tech only with 4 months of IFT experience, and my partner's only ambo driving experience was driving from our base to the rehab center. Finally, by taking her, we'd be removing her from a facility that had nurses and doctors - incompetent nurses and doctors, but nurses and doctors nonetheless who have a wider scope of practice than we do.
On the other hand, this kind of thing feels like something we've been trained to do. We caught a medical emergency and were told to leave. I felt like the biggest asshole ever telling the daughter that although we, yes, are EMS providers, this is an emergency, and we have a fully stocked and capable ambo with people technically trained to operate it, there's nothing else we can do. We told the daughter exactly what had happened to her mom and the important info to relay to the EMS providers when they arrived, and alerted the nursing station, who sent some nurses. This whole situation took about 30-40 minutes from the time we entered the facility until we left. While I was on a wild goose chase talking with dispatch, the receiving facility, and facility nurses, my partner was taking vitals every few minutes. Luckily, they stayed consistent. I am going into work next week to talk to my manager about the call and what we could have done better.
What do you guys think? 30 minutes felt way too long to be on scene figuring out what to do, and it also felt deeply wrong to leave the PT with those nurses. Based on the info provided, was there a way we could have navigated this situation quicker? Should we have told our dispatch to suck an egg and transport her to an ER? Has anyone experienced anything like this? What did you do?
Edit: Reading the comments, OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW PROCARIOUS THIS SITUATION WAS. During all of this, I had the nurses trying to gaslight me into believing pt was stable, and I had the daughter trying to convince me to transport her mom ED. At first, dispatch was hesitant to cancel the call. Had I been a less experienced EMT, I probably would have bent to someone.