MSBMEDIC

its a joke all of us in ems have weird humors, besides the "asian" population in canada is high.

i love canadians, please tell me. besides i even went to canada once, i think its called hong kong.

ok people, i apologize. i'm not anti fire but where i'm from it seems these union fire guys act like the "second coming". i have no criminal background, not even a dui and i have family on the fire side who ride around in the "fire trucks" and rescue little kittens stuck in trees( dont tell my sister i said that). i'm just looking for a new frontier to work in doing something i like to do and for now looking at a private ambulance company called sunstar located in pinnelas countty give me some info on them any info you got, like what do they pay for a 15 yr. medic who's healthy, jokes, worked "911" side(inside a fire house) and taken gramas & grandpas to dialysis apts. if you give me this info i'll be nice, even to the canadians( for awhile). so accept my sorry for saying bad things were all in this together.

hey canadian prick, i'm not a criminal, just looking for simplicity, but you canadian pricks dont understand that do you?.

you know what i'm trying to get at, private vs. fire side. once again whats up in florida, tampa bay area?

i'm a non-union worker and not a fan of being employed by a gov.( town,city,county) that employs union workers, like most do. looking for independent company(for profit) that if has a contract with a goverment, ok, but not where i sit inside a fire house and forced to jerk off union guys while listening to there b.s. storys of heroics.

looking for private ambulance companys in florida, i know of some but need more info.

so its like jonny and roy waiting for the amb. drivers to arrive and t/p their patient with one of them on amb. and the other driving "rescue squad" 51. do we run up with stretcher and listen, not ask. follow their orders and smile and state "you are my hereo" and if they say bend over we state, "yes sir", do you want lube or not?. i'm curious, because these "fire gods" are there to assist you and provide info. about patients. let's go people give me some answers, why is southwest always hiring emt/medics is it because there expanding or because they have poor management skills, "fire gods" bother people's anal cavity too much, ect...

sorry, just got off shift(24) this a.m. and havent taken nap...

HEY PEOPLE NEED YOUR OPIONS ON SOUTHWEST AMBULANCE, NOT SO MUCH ABOUT PAY, BENEFITS,ECT.., BUT MANAGEMENT, FIRE DEPTS TX. OF SOUTHWEST EMPLOYEES AND THEIR TX. OF ONE ANOTHER. DO PEOPLE STAY AT SOUTHWEST. WHATS THE YEARLY TURNOVER OF EMPLOYEES. LOOKING FOR POSSIBLE EMPLOYMENT IN THAT AREA, FOR 911 SERVICE, NON GOVT., PRIVATE COMPANY ONLY.

get ready fire gods a communist city like san fran wanting competitionThe San Francisco Chronicle (California) San Francisco's public health director has decided to invite additional private ambulance firms to help the Fire Department cover 911 emergency medical calls on the city's streets. The decision by Dr. Mitch Katz to establish a "nonexclusive zone" for emergency ambulance services follows a recent state ruling that advised the city to put those services to competitive bid. But the health czar has balked at preparing a bid package for 911 medical services, a move that experts warned could create logistical problems and lower the quality of services, with private firms vying to serve neighborhoods where there are fewer homeless and uninsured patients. "This is the worst of all the solutions they could pick," said Richard Narad, a professor of health and community services at Chico State University who is an expert on California ambulance law. "You will have a system that will cost more, that will be less accountable and provide a lower level of service. And I don't understand why Katz would decline to put it out to bid, which would result in a provider who meets county standards and is accountable to the public and is likely to cost less." Narad said such competition for patients creates a highly expensive dispatch dilemma of determining which ambulance is closest, and will also result in an increasing number of ambulances flooding into the system - which will lead to higher costs that will be passed on to consumers. But Katz said dispatching the closest available ambulance to 911 calls will help reduce response times, especially in outlying areas that are not close to a fire station. On July 31, the state's Emergency Medical Services director, Dr. Steve Tharratt, ruled that San Francisco's 911 ambulance services, which have been dominated by the Fire Department since 1997, do not qualify for antitrust protection from the state because of a lack of competition among the city's emergency ambulance providers. Tharratt said private ambulance firms handle fewer than 2.4 percent of the city's 911 ambulance services. The state ruling has sparked consternation among Fire Department administrators, fire and paramedic union leaders and two private ambulance firms that already provide backup emergency ambulance services in the city. "Effective immediately, San Francisco will no longer maintain an exclusive ambulance zone," Katz wrote in an Oct. 3 letter to Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White. "If there are additional EMS providers who meet the requirements for advanced life support ambulance services, we will welcome them into our system ... Having additional providers may enhance our system by providing additional capacity." Katz said in a telephone interview Monday that the city was in "a weak position" to challenge the state's ruling. He also said that, with his creation of an open system for qualified ambulance providers, the state has no grounds to require a competitive bid process. "Providing pre-hospital care is part of our core mission, and we're devoted to it," Hayes-White said. "We're not going to change the way we do business at all." David Nivens, president of the California Ambulance Association, said that he was unaware of another urban area in California that has successfully operated a nonexclusive zone for emergency ambulance services. But, he added: "I would think that San Francisco would be an attractive market ... It's small and there's a large population there." David Andersen, a quality improvement expert in 911 ambulance services who worked previously for the San Francisco Fire Department, said that private ambulance firms may resort to "cream skimming" - only responding to calls in neighborhoods where patients are more likely to afford these services. John Hanley, president of firefighters union Local 798, questioned the qualifications of outside ambulance firms and the impact Katz's decision will have on the city's revenues. "We have extremely high standards on patient care," he said. "Do the ambulance companies that will be doing this work have our standards on patient care?" Private ambulance firms were skeptical about Katz's latest move. "We'd hate to go back to the ambulance wars of years gone by," said Jerry Souza, general manager of American Medical Response, which already provides backup 911 ambulance services in the city. "Ultimately, we're concerned about quality and a dilution of levels of competencies by new providers who might come in." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2008 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy RSS Feeds for EMSResponder.com: Top EMS News Section -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Share your thoughts, advice, opinions, and expertise @ EMSResponder.com Submit a comment Email Alerts Industry Blast EMS NewsWeek EMS Expo Alerts Product Showcase Magazine News

yes, any private amb. in this country is hiring for medics. why is this you ask. simple we dont need millions of dollars spent on ridiculas fire equipment and pretty stations with flat panel digital screen tv's hooked up to sattelites. massive amounts of time off paid to fire gods with huge pensions and all the citizens bowing down to them thinking that these fire gods are here to save them. simply put less money on fire gods side and more money on private amb. side due to the need for more medics to treat and transport the sick and injured.

let's do this, have every medic obtain a bs in physiology and then train countless hours on practicality of being a paramedic and after 4-5 years total have them apply for a medic and then get paid annual saluary of 40,000-45,000 in oklahoma. then wait after they become new employees of a company that pays low wages due to low pay of care by private, medicare, and medicaid insurance to these companys, they have to become nremt-p, cct-p, acls, phtls, pals, and dont forgrt CPR certified. after all this education and training you will not have one medic working the streets. THATS WHY YOU FORMER MEDICS ARE NOW RN'S AND ACTING LIKE SECOND COMING, BUT NOTHING MORE THAN WAITRESSES RUNNING FROM ONE RM. TO THE NEXT. SIMPLICITY IS HERE TO STAY... AND WITH 75 MILLION BABYBOOMERS NEARING THAT AGE WE WILL NEED TO STOP CPR, PUT MORE MEDICS ON THE STREET, PUT LESS MONEY INTO " FIRE EQUIPMENT" AND MORE INTO EMS ( WE SHOULD'NT HAVE FIRE STATIONS, WE NEED MEDICAL STATIONS), PAY MEDICS MORE IN SALUARY, BENEFITS, ECT... IF YOU WANT THEM TO LEARN MORE SIMPLICITY IS HERE AND IF YOU WANT US TO LEARN MORE "NURSE RATCHET", GIVE US THE MONEY.

that was awesome. good laugh

I had the opportunity to attend a life-saving ceremony about 15 years ago. The EMS service involved was featuring and touting its EMTs and paramedics as walking messiahs who could bring virtually anyone back from the dead. One EMT or paramedic after another paraded onto the stage to receive a medal for bringing someone back to life after the patients heart and lungs stopped functioning. At one point, the ceremony was stopped, and the master of ceremonies asked one paramedic to turn and face the crowd as he proclaimed that this individual was responsible for saving eight people in the previous year. Wow! That was fantastic. I thought this guy must be like one of those preachers I see on television who can lay hands on someone and cure a disease that had plagued the person for years. The ceremony continued and the long line of employees continued to parade onto the stage as family, friends and fellow employees applauded their achievements. After the ceremony, there was plenty of picturing taking as the EMTs and paramedics held up their awards for the cameras or posed for group photos. At the eat-and-greet function after the ceremony, I told the EMS division chief that it would be great if some of the cardiac arrest survivors could have been at the ceremony to be reunited with their rescuers. The division chief replied that the department could find only one such survivor and that the person was already scheduled to be out of the country on a cruise. Wait a minute youre telling me that out of all these saves that you handed out medals for today, you could only find one patient? Yes, the division chief confirmed. I told him I did not understand. He explained that the agency defined a save as anytime a paramedic restored a heartbeat on a patient and the person made it to the floor of the hospital. He said the agency also considered anything a save if the emergency room restored a heartbeat and the patient made it to the floor after the crew began resuscitation efforts in the field. What happens, I asked the division chief, if the patient dies on the hospital floor three days later or remains the rest of his or her life on a respirator because there is no brain function? The division chief said that his service still considered that a save. I left the ceremony a bit confused, since I considered a save someone who walked out of a hospital. A series of articles in USA Today last year looked at the 50 most populous cities in the United States and found cardiac arrest survival rates ranging from nearly zero to claims by some cities of survival rates topping 20%. The series made some cities look terrible at saving victims of cardiac arrest while other cities like Seattle (45% save rate), Boston (40%) Kansas City (20%), San Francisco (22%), Houston (21%), Tulsa (26%) and Oklahoma City (27%) looked great. Why the discrepancy? Were the other cities so bad or were places like Seattle and Boston so good? Part of the secret of success may be the system, but the way in which cities measure cardiac arrest survival rates can provide favorable or unfavorable statistics. It all depends on how some cities measure cardiac arrest survival or, as one may suggest, cook the books. The cities that can claim cardiac arrest survival rates over 20% use a standard for measuring cardiac arrest survival called the Utstein template. In the 1980s, all around the world, the survival of cardiac arrest victims was measured in different ways and different formats. In response to these differences, the Utstein template came about after an international group of scientists met in June 1990 to address their concerns with research involving out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. These scientists met at the Utstein Abbey in Stavanger, Norway. A second meeting was held in December 1990, in Brighton, England, and was referred to as the Utstein Consensus Conference. Recommendations from the follow-up conference were published simultaneously in American and European medical journals. The report included uniform definitions, terminology and recommended data sets (the Utstein style) to assist clinical investigators in reporting human resuscitation studies. With the Utstein template, only those victims who have a good chance to be saved are counted. Further, the Utstein template counts only those survivors who leave the hospital without serious brain damage. Looking at the Utstein template, you begin to realize how some cities have over a 20% survival rate while others linger below 5%. The Utstein template removes any victim who is in cardiac arrest because of trauma. Think about how many trauma victims you have seen survive cardiac arrest. If your experience is like mine, hardly any survive. If you measured cardiac arrest survival rates and included trauma victims, it would immediately lower your percentage. The Utstein template counts only patients who suffered a witnessed arrest and had an initial EKG of ventricular fibrillation in the percentage numbers. Other rhythms like asystole are not counted. One benefit of a witnessed arrest is that there is a good possibility that a bystander started CPR, which also increases success percentages. Unfortunately, few EMS systems in the U.S. use the Utstein template for determining survival of cardiac arrests in their communities. And since most EMS systems are judged based on their cardiac arrest survival rates, (although they usually make up less than 1% of calls), a low survival rate reflects poorly on the EMS system. Bottom line if you measure only those cardiac arrests that involved witnessed arrests and the patients were in ventricular defibrillation, your numbers would improve. Some people would say this is cooking the books. Id say it is better to be accurate than to parade a bunch of people to receive medals when they really did not save anybody. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gary Ludwig, MS, EMT-P, a Firehouse® contributing editor, is deputy chief of EMS in the Memphis, TN, Fire Department. He has 28 years of fire-rescue service experience, and previously served 25 years with the City of St. Louis, retiring as the chief paramedic from the St. Louis Fire Department. Ludwig is vice chairman of the EMS Section of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), has a masters degree in business and management, and is a licensed paramedic. He is a frequent speaker at EMS and fire conferences nationally and internationally. He can be reached through his website at www.garyludwig.com. To purchase single article reprints (minimum 250) for distribution please contact: PARS International at 212-221-9595 x431 or at www.magreprints.com/quickquote.aspx?ID=cygnus -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Share your thoughts, advice, opinions, and expertise @ EMSResponder.com Submit a comment