# The "Green Machine" is moving to in to Houston and Dallas!



## Flight-LP (Nov 1, 2011)

It was announced today that NorthStar EMS (Houston, Tx.) is selling their operation to Acadian Ambulance, thus opening a new market door for the Green Machine in Houston and Dallas, along with another expansion in the Beaumont / Port Arthur area.

More details to come along with a press release.....................

The best of luck to the current NorthStar EMS employees!


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## shfd739 (Nov 1, 2011)

Flight-LP said:


> It was announced today that NorthStar EMS (Houston, Tx.) is selling their operation to Acadian Ambulance, thus opening a new market door for the Green Machine in Houston and Dallas, along with another expansion in the Beaumont / Port Arthur area.
> 
> More details to come along with a press release.....................
> 
> The best of luck to the current NorthStar EMS employees!



Where was this announced at? I've known this was coming but it hasn't been released to our folks yet. 


Sent from my electronic overbearing life controller


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## Flight-LP (Nov 2, 2011)

shfd739 said:


> Where was this announced at? I've known this was coming but it hasn't been released to our folks yet.
> 
> 
> Sent from my electronic overbearing life controller



It was announced in Houston at an employee meeting.


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## Fish (Nov 2, 2011)

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm


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## shfd739 (Nov 2, 2011)

Flight-LP said:


> It was announced in Houston at an employee meeting.



Figured that was probably where it was. 


Sent from my electronic overbearing life controller


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## Flight-LP (Nov 3, 2011)

Press release................

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/11/prweb8934478.htm


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## Nervegas (Nov 4, 2011)

Going to be hard for them to break into the Dallas market, I was under the impression Northstar ran mainly in the Denton/Mckinney areas, and north of that. Us and AMR have most of the major IFT and 911 contracts in the Dallas area, and I know that our hospital contracts will never go away since the hospital systems are our sponsors. But it is good to see a reputable company coming into the area, maybe they can push out some of the smaller, *cough* less reputable companies we see hanging around.


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## Flight-LP (Nov 4, 2011)

Nervegas said:


> Going to be hard for them to break into the Dallas market........................... and I know that our hospital contracts will never go away since the hospital systems are our sponsors.



No, it's not going to be hard for them. They have the money, the business plan and development team to enter any market out there. They can provide the quantity of service at the bottom dollar price. No other organization can match the economics. AMR is at a disadvantage right now as they recently went private, Acadian is strong as an employee owned company. Also, NorthStar's current operation is profitable and successful. I think you'll be surprised!

Also, if there is one thing I have learned over the last two decades, it is NEVER say NEVER.


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## Nervegas (Nov 5, 2011)

Flight-LP said:


> No, it's not going to be hard for them. They have the money, the business plan and development team to enter any market out there. They can provide the quantity of service at the bottom dollar price. No other organization can match the economics. AMR is at a disadvantage right now as they recently went private, Acadian is strong as an employee owned company. Also, NorthStar's current operation is profitable and successful. I think you'll be surprised!
> 
> Also, if there is one thing I have learned over the last two decades, it is NEVER say NEVER.



I agree completely with the AMR part, but I don't see how they would push CareFlite off of the hospital contracts with Methodist, Baylor, Parkland, THR and JPS. Seeing as how those hospitals are our board of directors in the first place. Im sure they will compete for our other IFT and 911 contracts, but the bulk of what we do is IFTs between those hospital systems or from them to another facility, that and our air stuff. Our 911 contracts in JoCo and HillCo are pretty stable too, would be tough to undercut those, plus they just renewed both of them through 2015 I believe. But I do agree about Acadian being a top notch service, and that they will definitely bring competition to the area, I'm just not sold on them being able to push CF out.


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## Flight-LP (Nov 5, 2011)

Nervegas said:


> I agree completely with the AMR part, but I don't see how they would push CareFlite off of the hospital contracts with Methodist, Baylor, Parkland, THR and JPS. Seeing as how those hospitals are our board of directors in the first place. Im sure they will compete for our other IFT and 911 contracts, but the bulk of what we do is IFTs between those hospital systems or from them to another facility, that and our air stuff. Our 911 contracts in JoCo and HillCo are pretty stable too, would be tough to undercut those, plus they just renewed both of them through 2015 I believe. But I do agree about Acadian being a top notch service, and that they will definitely bring competition to the area, I'm just not sold on them being able to push CF out.



The point is to not be too secure in your assumptions. CF could be gone tomorrow, next week, or next year. No one knows until the action comes. Much larger and more prominant companies have vanished over the years, again anything is possible. Who's to say that all of your current hospital systems will survive the next few years? 911 contracts can and are broken at a constant rate, so those are never as stable as one thinks. Plus here is the $64K question of the day. Who's to say that CF will not sell out to Acadian as well?

Be comfortable, but never believe you have the false sense of security that you are currently perceiving.......................


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## Shishkabob (Nov 5, 2011)

Nervegas said:


> JPS.



Eh, CF really only has the organ donation aspect of JPS, and not the patient aspect.  MedStar IS the exclusive IFT and 911 agency in Fort Worth (and 14 other cities) by law.  

CF just does organ transports for cheaper 






Did CF take Parkland from AMR?  Ouch.


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## usalsfyre (Nov 5, 2011)

I'm fairly certain for all of the "exclusive" language written into the contracts, Parkland uses everyone. I do one or two a week out if there, and we do a fair number of vent calls out of Presby.


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## usalsfyre (Nov 5, 2011)

Ya know, we really need to some sort of North Texas meetup...


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## Shishkabob (Nov 5, 2011)

usalsfyre said:


> Ya know, we really need to some sort of North Texas meetup...



Well, you and I DID meet at BW3s once... :rofl:


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## usalsfyre (Nov 5, 2011)

Linuss said:


> Well, you and I DID meet at BW3s once... :rofl:



Which we need to do again as soon as I'm not in perpetually broke single income land lol


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## Shishkabob (Nov 5, 2011)

Psh, I've been in that land my whole life 


I got my FTO schedule, SOOO any of the days I'm not savings lives is good.


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## Nervegas (Nov 5, 2011)

Linuss said:


> Psh, I've been in that land my whole life
> 
> 
> I got my FTO schedule, SOOO any of the days I'm not savings lives is good.



I agree, I work Sun-Wed and have Thurs-Sat off. Beer would be good.


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## Fish (Nov 7, 2011)

Top notch company?


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## shfd739 (Nov 7, 2011)

Fish said:


> Top notch company?



What's your beef with Acadian?


Sent from my electronic overbearing life controller


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## Fish (Nov 7, 2011)

shfd739 said:


> What's your beef with Acadian?
> 
> 
> Sent from my electronic overbearing life controller



I have never heard anyone that works for them consider it to be a Top Notch company is all, I have heard the opposite infact(except for good pay).


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## shfd739 (Nov 7, 2011)

Fish said:


> I have never heard anyone that works for them consider it to be a Top Notch company is all, I have heard the opposite infact(except for good pay).



Who have you been talking to?

I know of a couple hundred Texas employees that will agree with me that Acadian is a top notch company and a great place to work.


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## Fish (Nov 7, 2011)

Apparently not the same Texas employees that you have been talking to, but being a Field Supervisor you might get different answers than I. More than one person stated "But you didn't hear that from me, this company is Fire Crazy if you say one bad thing"


Acadian is good as far as Privates go, I will say that. Infact I would like to see Acadian get into the California market like Paramedics Plus is, Rural Metro and AMR have dominated and ruined that Market for years. It would be nice for other larger strong companies to come in and finally promote decent wage and benfits to the EMS personnel there.


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## shfd739 (Nov 7, 2011)

Fish said:


> Apparently not the same Texas employees that you have been talking to, but being a Field Supervisor you might get different answers than I. More than one person stated "But you didn't hear that from me, this company is Fire Crazy if you say one bad thing"
> 
> 
> Acadian is good as far as Privates go, I will say that. Infact I would like to see Acadian get into the California market like Paramedics Plus is, Rural Metro and AMR have dominated and ruined that Market for years. It would be nice for other larger strong companies to come in and finally promote decent wage and benfits to the EMS personnel there.



We arent fire crazy at all. Quite the opposite. We invest too much in our people to not keep them. 

 Though Im an Ops Super our employees are still pretty open and blunt when they are they arent happy and I tend to hear about it pretty quick. 

California is way too far to go. Though the weather is awesome.


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## tssemt2010 (Nov 7, 2011)

Fish said:


> Apparently not the same Texas employees that you have been talking to, but being a Field Supervisor you might get different answers than I. More than one person stated "But you didn't hear that from me, this company is Fire Crazy if you say one bad thing"
> 
> 
> Acadian is good as far as Privates go, I will say that. Infact I would like to see Acadian get into the California market like Paramedics Plus is, Rural Metro and AMR have dominated and ruined that Market for years. It would be nice for other larger strong companies to come in and finally promote decent wage and benfits to the EMS personnel there.



i agree, i know 2 former supervisors and they both hated it with a passion, fire crazy, and extremely controlling and at one point told one of them "for 20 dollars an hour we own you, you better pick up that phone when we call"


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## terrible one (Nov 7, 2011)

Fish said:


> Acadian is good as far as Privates go, I will say that. Infact I would like to see Acadian get into the California market like Paramedics Plus is, Rural Metro and AMR have dominated and ruined that Market for years. It would be nice for other larger strong companies to come in and finally promote decent wage and benfits to the EMS personnel there.



AMR is really the only dominant company in CA. 
R/M is only in SD county (maybe not for long) and only recently got a Santa Clara County.
I think most counties in CA are getting tired of AMR, but of course I have no stats on that.


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## Fish (Nov 7, 2011)

terrible one said:


> AMR is really the only dominant company in CA.
> R/M is only in SD county (maybe not for long) and only recently got a Santa Clara County.
> I think most counties in CA are getting tired of AMR, but of course I have no stats on that.



True that, while I found that AMR was "decent" I do see how competition would really change things.


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## shfd739 (Nov 7, 2011)

tssemt2010 said:


> i agree, i know 2 former supervisors and they both hated it with a passion, fire crazy, and extremely controlling and at one point told one of them "for 20 dollars an hour we own you, you better pick up that phone when we call"



Not near this bad for the supervisors. Yes we carry a work phone that gets emails and my employees do sometimes call me on my off days but I dont mind. Im here for the company and here for them- it's what I do. Im also paid alot better than $20/hour to do all this.


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## Fish (Nov 7, 2011)

shfd739 said:


> Not near this bad for the supervisors. Yes we carry a work phone that gets emails and my employees do sometimes call me on my off days but I dont mind. Im here for the company and here for them- it's what I do. Im also paid alot better than $20/hour to do all this.



What do you think of Acadian's Paramedic School?


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## Fish (Nov 7, 2011)

I will say this, given the choice between Acadian, and all other privates in the Houston area. I am going Acadian all the way.


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## shfd739 (Nov 7, 2011)

Fish said:


> What do you think of Acadian's Paramedic School?



The only site i have experience with is the Austin site. The program is tough but the NEMSA first time registry pass rate is nearly 90% so the students are pretty well prepared when they get out. I know being able to pass a test isnt the only indicator but the ones finishing are good, entry level medics.


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## JDub (Nov 24, 2011)

What type of contract did Acadian take over for their Lake Dallas operations? Do they have the 911 contract or do they just do IFT?


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