Tip of the Day

So Monday night I get a call at work to take an old lady to the hospital. She wasn't grievously ill, but she did need medical intervention. So off we go. We sat with this lady in the ER at an undisclosed location for....four....and....a....half....hours. During this time some of her family came to visit, being two of her daughters and a granddaughter. Her husband was also there (he was a fighter pilot during WWII).

During our stay the family decides they are going to make a trek to the closest Tim Horton's for a coffee run, and they kindly ask Darren and I if they can get us anything; to which we gratefully decline. One of the clerks at this ER thinks we're nuts because we didn't take them up on their offer.

I tried to explain to her that it's against policy to accept a tip while she tries to explain that it's not a tip, it's a free coffee. So here's what's running through my mind. This is a family of professionals who all appear to make a decent living, the three bucks it'll cost to buy Darren and I a coffee doesn't even qualify as a drop in their bucket. But what if that same family was on a very strict budgeted fixed income. Where they make only have two or three dollars a week to spend as "mad money", than coffee becomes a whole new issue.

I also asked the clerk, what if they were known millionaires and they offered her a crisp new 100$ bill for doing her job, would she take it? She says "of course not - that's different". Is it though?

The dictionary defines a gratuity as "something given voluntarily or beyond obligation usually for some service;". EMS is not a customer service business; my wages are paid by tax payers who have a right to expect prompt, professional, and knowledgeable service. It's my job to get to the patient as fast as can be done safely, provide rapid transport to an emergency department, and to provide care while enroute.

Now if you look at a waiter/waitress job, their job is to take your order and bring your food. They can certainly take pains to go "above and beyond" and I'm sure we've all had examples of restaurants at both ends of the spectrum. The point is that they can earn a tip with their job performance and theirs is an industry where tipping is not just encouraged, it's almost required. On a side note, I have HUGE issues with places that add a 15% gratuity to your bill in advance, but that's another blog.

If mine was an industry where we were allowed to receive tips what you would find is when going to calls where we think people can afford a tip, they get better service. And that gentle reader is a very dangerous and slippery slope in my line of work. At my job every patient is to be treated the same, regardless of circumstance.

I tried vehemently (as only I can) to explain that the kindness is not in the tip, but in the offer. She didn't get it. But that's ok; I understand it.

Cheers!