FDNY medic likely to lose job for joking about patient
The Lt. posted details online of a 911 call he found hilarious — a woman complaining of a swollen vagina — with the patient's name and address
By Ginger Adams Otis
The New York PostNEW YORK — He got punked — by himself.
An EMS lieutenant with a sick sense of humor is likely to lose his FDNY job thanks to a tasteless joke that violated federal medical-privacy law.
Bozo boss Michael Palleschi, 36, posted details online of a 911 call he found hilarious — a woman complaining of a swollen vagina — without redacting the patient's name and address, sources said.
FDNY top brass found nothing comical about Palleschi's behavior and pushed to get him fired.
Even as his job hung in the balance, the pudgy prankster got into hot water again — this time for an alleged joke on a teenager in the EMS Explorer program at the Brooklyn EMS station in Canarsie, where Palleschi had been exiled on modified duty, sources said.
The juvenile high jinks got Palleschi hauled in for a second investigation, the FDNY said.
An anonymous tipster told the FDNY that, two weeks ago, Palleschi wrote a stickup note demanding cash, then folded it up and passed it to the young Explorer, claiming it was a coffee and bagel order that he should get filled at the nearby Dunkin' Donuts.
According to sources, Palleschi admitted he added a line about a stickup to a coffee order compiled at the station but said he ripped that part off before the Explorer ever left the building to hand it to a Dunkin' Donuts clerk.
The EMS Explorer program, part of an effort to recruit members into the FDNY, brings in local kids, usually between 16 and 20, from area high schools and colleges to intern at EMS stations.
An FDNY spokesman declined to comment on its problem prankster.
In the first incident, Palleschi took a picture of the computer screen in his ambulance that displays patient names, addresses, medical complaint and other sensitive personal data and uploaded it to his Facebook page because a woman's description of her swollen vagina amused him, sources said.
It was a serious violation of the strict federal rules — known as HIPAA — that protect the privacy of individual health information and patient confidentiality.
Palleschi's union head, Vincent Variale, said neither probe had yet returned conclusive evidence that he had done anything wrong. "Investigations are still ongoing, and until they are finished, it would be unfair to draw conclusions," he said.
Tuesday, June 29
FDNY medic likely to lose job for joking about patient
FDNY medic likely to lose job for joking about patient
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Privatize the Fire Department
Come to think of it...the US fire service BEGAN with private fire companies paid by the insurance companies. That didn't work out so well...
However the United States did not have government-run fire departments until around the time of the American Civil War. Prior to this time, private fire brigades compete with one another to be the first to respond to a fire because insurance companies paid brigades to save buildings.
There were no full-time paid firefighters in America until 1850. Even after the formation of paid fire companies in the United States, there were disagreements and often fights over territory. New York City companies were famous for sending runners out to fires with a large barrel to cover the hydrant closest to the fire in advance of the engines.[citation needed] Often fights would break out between the runners and even the responding fire companies for the right to fight the fire and receive the insurance money that would be paid to the company that fought it.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_firefightingj
In New York City....
In the same way that the multiple police forces created disorder, the multiple volunteer fire companies, which existed because of no singular public fire department, also caused more problems than they solved. With the streets crammed with buildings, fire spread easily. Because of their prevalence, insurance companies paid the first fire company that arrived, causing even more mayhem since the first person from a fire company at the scene sometimes placed a barrel over the hydrant in order to prevent others from using the hydrant, as shown in the film during a fire. That act resulted in the gang name “plug uglies” because the barrel they used was an “ugly” “plug” over the hydrant. By doing that they left the fire to rage on while waiting for the rest of their fire company to show up.http://www.historythroughfilm.net/gangsofnewyork.pdf
In total, thirty to forty fire companies existed, comprised mostly of men who wanted to be heroes, but like the two police forces depicted in the film, the many fire companies ended up fighting with each other while the fire destroyed the city. In the process of fighting the fires and each other, some volunteer firefighters looted the houses or shops being burnt, prompting many to join the fire companies so their own homes would not be looted if it ever caught fire. The same way the police forces grew corrupt due to corrupt politicians and government officials, the fire companies revolved around political and gang-related issues and linked themselves with gangs since the insurance money and looting financed the gangs.
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