Private EMS

Comment

Comment by Loralei Sturkie on August 12, 2010 at 2:09pm

We need paramedic internships for our students!

If you are having trouble finding good employees, have you considered being an internship site? For about 6 weeks, you can see how a paramedic student from our school performs -- if you like how they do, offer them a job! Our paramedic program has a 98% graduation rate (better than Harvard) so we must be doing something right.

Comment by Robert Parrington on January 17, 2010 at 12:54am

Happy 2010 I will start a new comment this year. In IL. the state decided to introduce a new Certification and Petition for all psych. patients going to other facilities. Some IL. hosp has them some don't so just be aware of these.

Comment by Ray Purcell on May 4, 2009 at 12:16pm

The stigma of poor employees affects every type of service. And Neal is right, management does not always understand that poor employees affect evry part of the service, because one bad call with them makes the entire service look bad. Most municipal services just shift them to a different area, but that isn't always possible in private services. The Catch-22 is that it is the FTO's responsibility to ensure that new employees are up to par, but if you have one that knows how "the game" is played, you may not catch it until its too late, and by then, it's very difficult to get rid of them. Here is something to think about. Does your service do any type of continuing education, or is it up to the individual medic to keep up their hours? By having in-house training, it should be possible to spot poor employees before they get into trouble on the streets. And by training, I don't mean the type where you sit and watch videos, or listen to an instructor talk for an hour, I mean actual hands-on training. Just something to think about from my addled brain. Stay safe.

Comment by jason renz on April 30, 2009 at 2:43pm

I to am an FTO for my company.I think the hardest part of weeding out the good and not so good new EMT's is difficult, becuse alot of people will inadvertently " play the game" and in my eyes that makes me look bad to my bosses later down the road when they get themselves into trouble.

Comment by Neal Smith on April 16, 2009 at 7:45am

I think the stigma of poor employees in private ems comes from the fact of once hired poor employees are hard to get rid of, the pressure management has to get trucks on the road and to calls under that magic time. With the need to staff X number of trucks a day, we have to accecpt some less than ideal providers. I am an FTO and sometimes its hard to explain to the provider or the management why I feel this person needs more training time when they have a card and "experience". The big difference in the "culture" of paid EMS and "volly" EMS is a steep learning cure for some providers and it seems to me it is easier for the new provider to adapt to the corporate culture of EMS without trying to provide both paid and volly.

Comment by Amy Corcoran on April 15, 2009 at 7:13pm

I just found this site the other day and i just located this group. Some really interesting comments here. I do work private ems full time on the critical care ambulance contracted at our level one trauma center ( in our area private only really does interfacility ) and belong to a volly station ( vollys do 90% of 911 ems in our state). So i hear comments for and against both. I do believe as an instructor you can learn different aspects of ems and healthcare from each one and encourage the emt students I teach to do both. Problems we have are in the past a lot fo people who couldnt get hired from the fire dept( our fire and ems depts are all joined volly depts with the exception of 1 or 2 in the state) or who were fired from them came to private and the stigma of poor employees has stuck even if its not as bad as it was. This also keeps us form getting potentially good employees.

Comment by jason renz on March 8, 2009 at 10:56pm

You know one of the biggest gripes that I have with alot of the facilites that I work with is that we must be kind to the staff but they can be as nasty as they want to be to us. that sucks the big one.

Comment by David Burkham on January 29, 2009 at 9:36am

Competition is a funny thing, especially in EMS. I understand the company that does not want it's employees in any way associating with others.

Comment by Lisa Ann on January 29, 2009 at 9:08am

I work for a commercial Agency in my area, there are I think only about 3 or maybe 4 Fire departments that provide both fire service and EMS. However there are 5-6 commercial Ambulance services covering in the area. This at times works well and at other times is a royal pain in the butt! There is 1 service out there with a definite PARAGOD mentality and looks down on everyone else. Hell this company has in their employee handbook that they cannot fraternize with another service and get this the can't stop at the same fast food or coffee shop that another agnecy is at! Now how does that help in the spirit of a teamwork during an MCI or interagency call??????? As far as Professional goes I agree you must always put your best foot forward and look and act as such. In order to get respect you must earn it. This is not a God given right. My credo is always treat others as you would like to be treated. I sometimes have to bite my lip when I hear from a nurse or MD that I am only an ambulance driver. I smile nicely and explain to them exactly what me role and capabilities are which then has them better understand why I am either asking a question or doing something that is part of my protocol.....over time and with almost constant interaction they are now more comfortable with me and I can see that the truly value what i can do for them and the patient.......however there will always be the non believers and the haters...I choose not to engage in that and remember why I became not only an RN but now a Paramedic.... to help those in need......when I stop remembering or caring is when I need to step back re evaluate. I have learned alot from doing tarnsports and I have learned alot doing 911 calls......so I have been fortunate to have the best of both worlds when I work....

Comment by Ray Purcell on January 26, 2009 at 9:39pm

Thanks for the comments everyone, and to Kyle for the discussion. Sorry, I've been kinda slacking due to too many things going on. Jeff, your 2 cents is very welcome, and I agree with every bit of it. Whether we are 911, private, or hospital based, we should remember we are all there to serve the public. Unfortunately, sometimes ego's DO get in the way, and it makes kindergarten look orderly. As long as we have people like those in this group though, we will somehow manage to do the right thing. Stay safe all.

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