All town ambulance likely to be denied la county license

[Mufasa556]

LMAO! That might be the funniest thing I've read regarding LAEMS ever. If you put that in a EMS comedy I would think it's too far fetched and cheap writing.

I thought the Lynch crew that had their windshield busted out in a South LA neighborhood because the residents thought the name was racist was funny.

AIDS starts out innocently as "Attitude, Integrity, Depedibility, and Service." No one would could have foreseen the future.

Doctors is still around in South OC. To me, the winner for stupidest name is still Pineapple Express in San Diego. I still haven't found a current company that beats that.

 

[Mark Lassman]

I never knew, at that time, what “AIDS” stood for (regarding the ambulance company name). Never gave it a thought. But our hospital had some of the first AIDS patents in the Valley back then, and every time I would see their rigs on the streets, I’d think that you wouldn’t want to see THAT one pulling up to your house! What would the neighbors think?

Yes, I thought Doctors was still around. I used to live in Huntington Beach, and I’d see them every now and then. And even then, I thought what a dumb-*** name.

As for Lynch, I know them, too. Knew a few guys who worked for them. Lynch is the owner’s last name, that’s all. But I can understand how they might now know that in South Central.

“Pineapple Express”? That’s a real name? It was a movie title, wasn’t it? And a name they give to very strong winds coming from the Islands.

 

[Mark Lassman]

Got other one. The name is also the name of the owner of the company: “Gerber Ambulance”. They’re still around, too.

Whenever I’d see them, I’d say, “Look, someone must need an emergency delivery of strained peas!

“Unit 23, Unit 23… 225 South Street, apartment 6A. Ran out of strained peas. Unit 23, Code 3!"

 

[Jim37F]

I worked for PRN. I thought it was a pretty decent company, when I worked there my only complaint was lack of emergent calls lol. (Then again I WAS on a BLS IFT unit lol, you'd hear the occasional code 3 transfer for an ALS or CCT unit get dispatched if the doc at the sending facility felt it was urgent enough but didn't want to ty up 911 resources) Thanks to the Kaiser contract, half our calls were transfers for them, never had any issues with pay and checks bouncing or shady back alley calls or doctor up PCRs. Since I've left, I've heard they got bought out and under the new management have gone downhill though...

I left PRN to become a Gerber baby in Torrance haha. Only left because of their 911 contract with TFD. Minimum wage to respond to 911 calls code 2, (only time we ever went code 3 there was when forw upgraded us) whike still taking transfers that occasionally were a little shady (once pocked up a homeless lady out of a motel to take directly to a SNF) but nothing I'd call fraud. Equipment was old and ambulances kept breaking down, hit or miss getting a restock of expendable supplies. I was overall happy to leave. Last I heard they first lost the Torrance 911 contract shortly after I left for greener pastures, and then a few months after that (a year or so ago) they completely shut down and are now out of business.

I'd rather have been a Care bear over being a Gerber baby lol but I never got my OC card so I never got further than submitting an app there lol.

My vote for most ridiculous ambulance name? I stumbled across a San Diego IFT company, driving an old beat up van, named Xtreme Care Ambulance lol

 

[Mark Lassman]

“Gerber Baby”, that’s cute. Love it. Was that something you called yourselves or others called you?

And “Care Bear” is great, too. Care, I knew. I used to work at Event Medical Services (Los Alamitos) and Care was down the street in Cerritos, and one of our accounts. They bought all their supplies from us. From what I remember, they had a pretty good reputation. They seem to have most of the 911 contracts in Orange County. I lived in Huntington Beach. HBFD had their own ambulances, same as LAFD.

 

[Mark Lassman]

I know this is off topic, but bear with me just this once.

Funny you mention “minimum wage”. When I worked for Event Medical Services (EMS, great initials, yes?), this was 2001-2003, we paid our guys a whopping $7/hour. Straight. No overtime, straight pay. Wow. You can really support a family on that, right? Anyway, We covered “events”, hence our name. Shifts could be 4 hours or 14 hours. We didn’t pay for mileage, either. Your pay started from the time the shift started until the shift ended. If you were coming from the San Fernando Valley and working an event at Coors Amphitheater in Chula Vista, you weren’t paid for the 4 hour down and back up and the 150 miles each way it would take you. The boss was a cheap SOB, what can I say? He said they were “independent contractors”, not “employees”, so they had to keep track of their own mileage and expenses and “deduct” them later on their taxes.

Since I was “management”, the boss said that if there was an empty slot, or someone didn’t show up, that I’D have to go. See, it was my job to get the slots filled with willing volunteers. It wasn’t easy to convince someone to do some of these long and far-away events for that $7/hour. Many times, the boss told me, at 4:30pm, as I’m about to wrap up for the day, that so-and-so called and said they couldn’t make it, or just didn’t show up at all, down at Coors, and that I’d have to go. So, I’d call the wife and say I’d be home late. Like, really late. Many times, I pulled back in at close to 4 am. Being salaried, I didn’t get any extra pay for that. It was “part of my job”, the boss said.

Turnover was a big problem for us. Most of our guys would stay for a few months, and then leave because 1) the boss was an *** and 2) no money in it for them. Some, as soon as the Fire Academy called, they were gone. Sure, why not? We had a few reliable “lifers”, but even some of those would turn down work because of the boss. They’d say, “I’d do it for YOU, because I like you, but I’m not doing it for HIM, so I have to say no.”. Thanks a lot. And I had another event I’d have to do.

But, Rank Has Its Privileges, as they say. Because I was “management”, if there was an event I wanted to see, for my own personal reasons, I’d go in uniform, with my ID and just walk in and see the show. We had Arrowhead Pond and Cerritos Amphitheater as two of our venues. At the Pond, I went and saw Paul McCartney and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Yes! AND Young. At Cerritos, I went up to the First Aid Room, which overlooked the stage, and saw The Smothers Brothers. So, sometimes, I made out. But even though the job paid horribly, and the boss was an ***, I loved DOING it.

Shortly after I left, he lost his ambulance license (we had about 8 ambulances, give or take). Oh, right. The guys would get an extra $2/hour if they took a “driver” assignment. Sometimes an event, such as a sports event or a County Fair, would want an ambulance on site. Anyway, he lost his ambulance license and went back to being just an equipment supplier, which I think he’s still doing.

 

[Akulahawk]

Here in Los Angeles, we used to have several ambulance companies with really stupid or poorly thought-out names....

We have one, now, called “PRN Ambulance” and another called “Priority 1 Ambulance”.

From what I can find, Priority 1 died about 8 months ago. Their websites are gone (they had more than one) and they apparently filed a lawsuit against LA County. They no longer appear on LA County's list of providers as well as Orange County's list. I can't say that I miss them. I have been around long enough to recall when their COO was not a paramedic. I used to work for them. Let's just say that at the time that I did, their ALS program was worse than a joke. They did not have their own PCR for ALS work, I think theirs was photocopied from a textbook or something. I don't know if they ever created an ALS PCR…

In any event, for all intents and purposes, they are dead.

 

[emfriendly]

UPDATE:

All Town Ambulance has recieved their LA County License and OC County License.

Due to them being new to the EMS provider field, they did have some set backs. But with hard work they are now on the verge of grabbing couple of 911 contracts (atleast what i hear). They do run CCTS And ALS calls.

They are not a shady company at all. Everyone with their comments look them up now. I worked at All Town for 1 year now and it has grown from 3 units to 13 units operating daily. Orange county and LA county are all included. No checks ever bounced, all my partners are the good emts/nurses/RNs, with a managment that is a pretty laid back and approving of their employees, regardless of who they are.

Maybe people should not judge on what a agency (LA COUNTY) thinks, do you guys know what it takes to a unit up and running with all the requirements from LA and OC?

If not then please educate yourselves, its all done for the money, LA county especially.

The only ones driving Mercedez and smoking cigarettes are LA county board members from all the money they take from small businesses.

 

[Mufasa556]

UPDATE:

...But with hard work they are now on the verge of grabbing couple of 911 contracts (atleast what i hear).

I'm glad you're so passionate about your place of employment, but "about to get a 911 contract" is the same line every IFT company feeds their employees to either fill seats or keep the seats filled.

There's no way county is going to get on the radio and request an updated ETA for All Town. Also, no company with their 800 number on the side is getting a fire contract.

I'm in no way trying to be a jerk, but I don't want some fresh out of school EMT reading this then applying there thinking they're going to be running 911 calls soon.

 

[emfriendly]

I'm glad you're so passionate about your place of employment, but "about to get a 911 contract" is the same line every IFT company feeds their employees to either fill seats or keep the seats filled.

There's no way county is going to get on the radio and request an updated ETA for All Town. Also, no company with their 800 number on the side is getting a fire contract.

I'm in no way trying to be a jerk, but I don't want some fresh out of school EMT reading this then applying there thinking they're going to be running 911 calls soon.

Out of all that you only read the 911 part? It doesnt matter if its within the next 6 months or 2 years but the goal of the company is to expand and being a little optimist couldn't hurt. I mainly posted here because i felt like the original poster did not think a small company would grow to take on what ever the County throws at them.

I'm a new EMT about 2 years experiance but the fact about 911 contracts was not draw me to All Town. We run ALS calls close to 911 senarios (going code and the whole nine yards).

I was attacted to the way they take care of their employees, units, and overall company. In no way im trying to diss what you say but look at the bigger picture. A small company showed the whole LA county what they are capable of, so just keep that in mind bud

 

[gonefishing]

I'm glad you're so passionate about your place of employment, but "about to get a 911 contract" is the same line every IFT company feeds their employees to either fill seats or keep the seats filled.

There's no way county is going to get on the radio and request an updated ETA for All Town. Also, no company with their 800 number on the side is getting a fire contract.

I'm in no way trying to be a jerk, but I don't want some fresh out of school EMT reading this then applying there thinking they're going to be running 911 calls soon.

Don't feed the troll bro.

 

[Mufasa556]

Out of all that you only read the 911 part?

No, I read all of it. You guys run ALS and CCT. Sometimes you get either emergent SNF calls or emergency IFT transfers. I didn't critique anything about the company since I don't work there and have no experience with the All Town operations.

I do know that almost every company feeds the same line to every perspective employee. If you told me MedCoast was about to get a 911 contract, Id entertain that idea, but All Town won't and I don't want new hires getting duped by misinformation.

Don't feed the troll bro.

I can't help myself!!

 

[toyskater86]

I can only envision Gio (if he is still there) saying that the company is going to do 911.... Due to the fact that he ran shoreline before it was bought out... This all town company is nothing special, just your typical BLS ambulance company... They don't have ALS (paramedics) they have cct and maybe RT transports...

 

[wtferick]

No, I read all of it. You guys run ALS and CCT. Sometimes you get either emergent SNF calls or emergency IFT transfers. I didn't critique anything about the company since I don't work there and have no experience with the All Town operations.

I do know that almost every company feeds the same line to every perspective employee. If you told me MedCoast was about to get a 911 contract, Id entertain that idea, but All Town won't and I don't want new hires getting duped by misinformation.



I can't help myself!!

That is how medcoast fooled me Never again! Lol

 

[looker]

UPDATE:

All Town Ambulance has recieved their LA County License and OC County License.

Due to them being new to the EMS provider field, they did have some set backs. But with hard work they are now on the verge of grabbing couple of 911 contracts (atleast what i hear). They do run CCTS And ALS calls.

They are not a shady company at all. Everyone with their comments look them up now. I worked at All Town for 1 year now and it has grown from 3 units to 13 units operating daily. Orange county and LA county are all included. No checks ever bounced, all my partners are the good emts/nurses/RNs, with a managment that is a pretty laid back and approving of their employees, regardless of who they are.

Maybe people should not judge on what a agency (LA COUNTY) thinks, do you guys know what it takes to a unit up and running with all the requirements from LA and OC?

If not then please educate yourselves, its all done for the money, LA county especially.

The only ones driving Mercedez and smoking cigarettes are LA county board members from all the money they take from small businesses.

Yes they got their la county certificate but then only one company didn't and that alpha as they got shutdown for fraud. As for als and going code 3,do all town have hospital contract? It almost sounds like you show up at snf and instead of following la county 911 procedure you just go code 3 without getting approval from 911 provider. Pretty easy way to lose county certificate. Also reason la county required everyone to get license was because only city that was regulating ambulance was la and that was a joke as well. Those people that are on the board are not working there full time.