The Desk

Please be advised that the video does contain some language which might not be suitable for all viewers.

In case anyone hadn’t realized it by now I am a huge fan of the HBO series The Wire.  I think it was one of the best directed, written, and acted shows I have ever seen.  I own every season on DVD, and I think I’ve been through every episode two or three times.  This is one of my favorite scenes, and I feel like it presents an interesting metaphor.

Think of the desk as the current state of EMS today.  Everyone has an agenda for it, and has the intention of moving it in the direction that they feel it should go, whether that is where it belongs or not.  The one person who has the knowledge for the desk’s proper destination fails to speak up simply assuming that everyone else around him is already in the know, which they aren’t.  So he starts pushing.  From the opposite side, they start pushing.  More people arrive and decide that they know what is best, they take up their positions and start pushing as well.  What are you left with?  One big stalemate.  No progress.

So what’s the answer?  In the video it is simple: everyone needs to shut up and decide as a group what needs to be done, and how to do it the right way.  In real life it is a bit more complicated.  We need a unified direction, and we lack that.  The NFPA sets one standard while evidence based medicine suggests another.  Some preach prevention and proactive medicine while others still insist on code 3 responses by multiple agencies to nearly every request for assistance.  Which is it going to be?  Do we want a fast, timely response or one more gauged towards what is medically efficient?

Let’s pick one and stick with it.