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Medical Transport-Service with a Southern Flair

Posted on Jul 29, 2010 by MMT   |  

If you don’t already know from your research that our company is based in the South, it probably won’t take you long to realize it once you speak to us on the phone. With our base being located in a college town, it’s true that we do have a melting pot of different dialects and backgrounds working here. Even with our diversity, it’s likely that you will stumble upon a southern drawl if you call back more than once. With people calling in to our dispatch center from San Francisco to Bar Harbor Maine, we have the opportunity to speak to many diverse and incredible people. Often, we hear the light heartedness in their tone as someone will ask, “Where are you located? I detect a southern drawl”. Proud as we are, some of us try to lose the accent so we don’t frighten our neighbors up north before we ever get the opportunity to show them what Southern Hospitality is all about. We even learn to adapt depending on who we are speaking to.

My mom used to do the same thing without realizing it. She spent 35 years teaching phonics to 1st through 3rd graders in the City of Atlanta school system. She was born in Brooklyn, NY, raised in Jamaica Queens ,NY and didn’t move South until after I was born. I will never forget how she effortlessly drifted from a touch of southern drawl back to her New York accent when she was in her comfort zone, among her family up North. It was like being fluent in two languages and adapting to the current environment at any given time.

Most of our personnel have spent time as a Paramedic or EMT out in the field. In this line of work, you enter peoples living rooms, bedrooms, hospital rooms, kitchens or wherever they may be. It’s amazing how you learn to adapt and speak the language of the various patients in their respective environments. Good communication is crucial in this line of work. You simply cannot question a 50 year old man, born and raised in the south, about his chest pain that began over gravy and biscuits the same way you would question a modest 40 year old woman who was just involved in an automobile accident in her Mercedes. Don’t get me wrong, the same medical information would be obtained, but the way in which the questions were asked would be completely different.

Evidence of this southern way of providing service is reflective in the testimonials we get back every day. After spending many hours traveling and caring for patients and their family members, we sometimes have them speaking our language by the time that we arrive at their destination. They may have started the transport asking for a “soda”. But by the end of the trip, they are asking for a “Coke”. Many times its nothing more than beginning the trip referring to everyone as “you all”, yet, miraculously when we drop them off, they are saying “Y’all have a safe trip home”. It’s true, some people we just can’t convince that the southern ways of speaking is easier. But one thing that transcends all walks of life, regardless of their backgrounds is the understanding that they are in the care of competent people who want to safely and comfortably get them to their destination. And it doesn’t matter if you love NASCAR and eating gravy and biscuits or love the Opera and dining on Caviar, y’all are gonna sure ’nuff know the difference in good customer service and patient care!

Tagged: medical transportation, patient transport, cross country medical, stretcher transport, medical transfer, long distance ambulance transport, interstate medical transport, gurney transport