Doesn't Anyone Watch TV?

For the past couple weeks I've been working different 911 shifts all over my company's service area. In the process of doing this I've come to the realization that people on TV are much more judicial about using the 911 system than in real life. I admit that I have a fairly cynical view of our current educational system and I tend to think that people take their cues on how to act/how the world works- especially when it concerns aspects of society that many people know little about (in this case the EMS system)-from TV shows and movies.

On TV, when someone yells "call 911!", it's usually because someone is dead or severely injured. I've seen this type of scenario in countless movies and crime shows, but I missed the one where someone yells "call 911, it's too hot in my apartment!"..... While that may sound like an exaggeration, that was an actual chief complaint on a call I ran last week.

Even in the news, the stories about Fire/EMS are usually some traffic accident with the patient being rushed to a helicopter in full C-Spine with IVs going. You never see the calls we get in the dead of night for back pain that the patient has had for weeks, but suddenly thought 3am was a good time to call an ambulance....

With all this media exposure about what Fire/EMS does, how is it that people don't understand what constitutes an "emergency"? There seems to be a persistent notion that just because you go to the emergency room in an ambulance, you will be seen quicker. You will be seen based on the severity of your illness, just as you would if you walked into the ER. Okay, end rant.