Interviewing the Interviewer

[mrmeaner]

I'm interviewing for a interfacility transfer job tomorrow and am checking to see if their are any questions I should ask specific to this type of job so I don't get burned later. I already have a FT job that's not EMS (my PT job is EMS) so I'm not in a dire need for this job. I want to work on getting more patient care experience and the FT job I have now is not going to get me there. However, I don't want to take a job/work for an employer that I'm going to regret later. Any help would be appreciated.

[Dustdevil]

...I don't want to take a job/work for an employer that I'm going to regret later. Any help would be appreciated.

Then ask him only what it pays. If he is not paying what your self-respect is worth, then you are going to regret it later. There is nothing else that makes working for a private IFT company worth it. And I have yet to find one that pays my going rate.

[mrmeaner]

Pay is about the same as what I'm making now, but I'll be able to see my son twice as much. Plus I may be able to work/volunteer for the state EMS office which is in dire need of help. That would not be an option at my curent job.

I expect that in order to get a positive experience from working IFT, it's going to require a considerable effort on my part. I just was checking to see if there are any traps I should look for.

[spenac]

Make sure they actually pay all hours you are at their beck and call. I have seen many services that require you to be on call unpaid, and only go on the clock when your ambulance has a patient. So you make a decently hourly wage until you add in all the unpaid time.

[JPINFV]

I would ask about critical care transports. How are they set up (designated CCT units or just what ever's available), do vent transports use RNs, medics, or RTs?

Do they offer any CEs (make mental notes if they offer any not provided by your current job)?

What is the makeup of their transports (percent of SNF->ER calls, for example. Not all non-emergent company calls are non-emergent)?

Time off policy/shift swapping policy?

[Richard B the EMT]

I have seen many services that require you to be on call unpaid, and only go on the clock when your ambulance has a patient.

On that, I worked 2 different companies where you got paid by the call between 1600 and 0700 hours. Both paid $5.00 per call (this was late 1970s to mid 1980s). One company had "guaranteed 3 calls", so if you did none, one, two, or break even three responses, you knew you were going to get a minimum $15.00 per night. Some of us hustled a bit, and did 15 transports in an overnight, earning $75.00 for the tour, in what is probably illegal today, transporting multiple, unrelated patients from one facility's ED to bed admission at a different building a few miles away, but run by the same hospital. Some calls, if passing certain arbitrary boundary lines set up by the company in advance, that call paid as a double, or even a triple call, say, a Brooklyn VA Hospital (Brooklyn, NY) IFT to the Roosevelt VA facility (in Ossening, NY) paid $15.00 as one call. They did require us to stay at various "bunking facilities they paid for, or remain on the radio, as they didn't use pagers.

The other company felt that you were burning their fuel, and only paid if and when you did a response, as otherwise, you were getting a free ride home at night, and a free ride back to the office in the morning. We were "on the leash", wearing pagers.

I think both these companies are currently elements of the MetroScare Ambulance Service now.