Do you work for a private company?

[Vee]

private company, fire department or other (explain).

just curious

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[Vee]

i work for a private company, personally. i will miss it.

 

[MedicFL]

I have worked for both private and county and city services and I can tell you than I really not a fan of the private services, they seem to want to do the most with the least, but the only thing that has kept me there is that they allow me to make my own sch.. and are pretty flexable when it comes to school...

 

[deleted6669]

I always worked for a private company with the only ems contract for the county so we did it all ; bls, als, critical care transports, bs transports, etc
I liked it because I was able to avoid all the " I want to be a fireman" yahoos with lights on their pickup trucks and mast pants under the front seat. nice to be able to focus on the medicine part of ems.

 

[24FF1313]

I don't have overheads on my Chevy Cobalt...
Our rural fire/rescue unit needs us to wear whatever hat we may be presented with. I joined to squirt water but EMS calls predominate, and I doubt that the versatility required is likely to be matched anywhere. Only about 800 dispatches a year, but I'll bet we see it all. Wish it was my day job.

 

[viostorm]

Hospital based.

 

[deleted6669]

I don't have overheads on my Chevy Cobalt...
Our rural fire/rescue unit needs us to wear whatever hat we may be presented with. I joined to squirt water but EMS calls predominate, and I doubt that the versatility required is likely to be matched anywhere. Only about 800 dispatches a year, but I'll bet we see it all. Wish it was my day job.

that's pretty low call volume....we had over 800/week across 14 stations.....maybe 10+ real 911 calls/station/day not including critical care transports or bs transfers

 

[TerraMedicX]

Currently work for a third service (technically a special tax district that covers about half the county). We run about 3000 calls a year and the majority are 911. This is probably the best service I have ever worked for. The pay is competitive, the protocols are aggressive (RSI, surgical cric, only three required call-ins, soon to have beta-blockers and continuing to grow/improve), a chief who will defend us against any other agency and pushes us to grow.

I've also worked for hospital-based, private and a volunteer FD. Each system has advantages and disadvantages.

Nate.

 

[McPoyle]

I work for a service which for the last forty years has been hospital based... however the company that owns the hospital also has an interfacility service and the two are in the processess of "merging" (more of a takeover by the for-profit transport service) so things are gettin pretty ugly... I hope to be accepted to med school before every shred of what used to be a great service is essentially dead...

 

[deleted92121]

I work for a private company that is in the top 25 of busiest services in the country. They have over 20 stations. It is nice except the lack of newer equipment.

dxu

 

[blackadder]

i worked part time/per diem for a large private service for four years that does some 911 but mostly transport.

pros:
-they were awesome at working with my schedule--i got to pick my own.
-the majority of people i worked with were great (that includes most of the management which I think is rare)
-offers to do some crazy transports (i was once offered a transport that was almost 1000 miles away from base)
-we had the contract to do the psychiatric transfers from the area's major trauma center to surrounding psych facilities...some VERY interesting patients

cons:
-the pay was within range of most private companies (aka crappy).
-the allocation of resources was pathetic. for instance, they gave me a ton of uniforms and 2 winter jackets and fleece vests...but there were no AED's on many of the bls rigs . although the semi defibs the I's and medics used were pretty nice.
-they were in such need of people that you could basically do anything and not get fired. while some saw this as a pro, i didn't since it greatly reduced professionalism and led to people stealing needles, fluid, etc. and failing to report when they broke/damaged something. one of our wheelchair vans went MISSING for 2 days and then mysteriosly reappeared. funny but sad.

 

[LargeBore]

Hospital Based - 10,000+ calls per year, all 911. Good times....

 

[MDtooB]

I worked for a private company for two years before heading off to med school. The company I worked for did both transport and 911 in queens for FDNY with 3,000+ calls a day (4,000+ during the summer) which meant anywhere form 3-8+ calls a shift. It was an awsome experience and I recommend to everyone who has the opportunity to work in a high call volume area. I was a shy little EMT-B when I started and became a confident AEMT-cc (NY state only...kinda like a medic but we get made fun of more often). It was an awsome experience before starting med school and helped to convince me that Emergency Medicine is the way to go!!! I do miss the calls and patient contact though (The volley agency onc campus gets very few calls a semester...between 20-30) and cannot wait until I start my clinical time!