Fire & EMS mergers, any advice?

[JakeEMTP]

which is why we work 24 hour shifts here at $8.00/hour.

:shock:

The only experience I have with combined dept.'s is also not favorable. They only do EMS to increase their call volume and members, thus receiving more grant money. And no, I'm not bitter because I didn't get on the dept. I never applied and have no desire to fight fire. It just seems to me that as stated here and on numerous threads when this comes up, Fire doesn't have the desire to run EMS. Only an end to a means.

[rccmedic39]

This is the huge problem I see here in SoCal especially. I have upgraded to ALS on a pt with audible rales and a bp of 210/100, and been told "all she needs is a ride, don't call us for this crap". These 5 and 6mo medic programs churn out fire guys who are becoming medics just to get a fire job. Thankfully, my medic program is longer at almost 1.5 years and a lot of guys don't have the patience for that. It's sad that a medic who doesn't want to be a firefighter in SoCal is relegated to making 14 dollars an hour. I'd like to be a fire medic someday, but my primary interest has always been EMS, and fire is more of a byproduct of not wanting to leave California.

Reddfrogg, I don't have any experience regarding an actual merger, but I work in a fire-based EMS system. Large numbers of people wanting to become firefighters here become paramedics in order to get hired with the department; however, these are people who want to be firefighters, not medics.

Of course, there are some older medics in the system who are phenomenal and I love running calls with them and learning from them. Unfortunately, the majority of medics are just biding their time until they can get a spot on the engine. Their treatment is affected by this attitude.

We have issues with medics BLSing ALS patients because they just don't care. For example, protocol states that systolic blood pressure over 200 and/or diastolic bp over 100 is ALS--can't tell you how many times I've gotten a reading like this and had the medic or another firefighter redo the bp and claim that I was wrong. Later, show up at the hospital, take vitals again and have a nurse upset that we just brought a patient in BLS with a bp of 210/120.

Not sure how it will be in your area, but our ambulance company is contracted by fire, so it's in everyone's best interest to keep them happy. We are generally told not to question a medic's decisions; we are literally "gurney-jockies" here. If the dept. is unhappy with us, they can simply renew the ambulance contract with a different company. In order to win the contract, our company must also keep expenses low, which is why we work 24 hour shifts here at $8.00/hour.

Bottom line: I don't recommend it.

[JPINFV]

Ahh, Southern California. Probably the only place where the non-emergent EMTs handle more real emergencies than the 911 EMTs.

[rccmedic39]

Ahh, Southern California. Probably the only place where the non-emergent EMTs handle more real emergencies than the 911 EMTs.

quoted for truth. I used to bag on IFT only companies, but after seeing what some of their "urgent BLS" calls come out as, they get most of the real EMS experience out here.

[thestumptone]

look at it this way, your patients aren't getting any smaller are they?!

where i come from we call the fire service 'gumbies' - good for carrying heavy things and not much else...

i am NOT referring to the New Zealand Fire Service.

[thestumptone]

oop's. i was NOT referring to the New Zealand Fire Service.