# Moving To Texas!



## RiderMedic (Sep 23, 2011)

Hello All!

I'm pulling up stumps and leaving New York and the time is drawing near to when I'm going to start having to put in my applications and resumes so I decided it would be a good time start gathering info on possible candidates for an employer. 

I've been a medic since '03 and have been doing transports for the past 4 years (IABPs, vents, multi-drip (2+) transports, Isolettes, etc) and have the usual certs plus NRP and PNCCT. Hoping to finally get into a CCEMT-P class next month [class isn't definite yet]. I feel I'm way overdue for it.

Moving to Texas has been on my mind since I was in medic class and now I'm finally making it a reality. I'm looking at Rockport as my #1 choice for a home. Unfortunately, I'm finding info on EMS/Transport services in the Rockport/Corpus Christi area to be quite bare. Seems a lot of places don't have websites. :sad:

The only services in the area with websites up are _Aransas County EMS_, _Guardian EMS_, _Advance EMS_, and _Coastal Care EMS_. If anyone has any info or experience with these companies or any others in that area I'd love to hear about it.

Also, I have no qualms about driving long distances [3 - 4 hours] if I can get a 24 hour shift, the pay is worth the hassle, and if the company allows living that far away. So I'm open for suggestions as well . 

[As a back-up, I was thinking about the Georgetown area IF there was nothing viable employment wise in the Corpus Christi area and yes, I'm aware of _Williamson County EMS_. Too bad _CareFlite_ is in Dallas as I have no plans on living in the Dallas area.]

Thanks in advance!


----------



## bigdogems (Sep 23, 2011)

Are you set on Corpus being the area you live in? Houston has job openings all the time. You just have to constantly be looking because they can usually fill a spot pretty quick.


----------



## shfd739 (Sep 24, 2011)

I know of 2 of the services mentioned and Id pass on both of them.

In georgetown area your options are limited. Either fire departments or Williamson County. 

I wont pimp my employer this time.


----------



## RiderMedic (Sep 24, 2011)

bigdogems said:


> Are you set on Corpus being the area you live in? Houston has job openings all the time. You just have to constantly be looking because they can usually fill a spot pretty quick.



Been to Houston and have no desire to live there. 



shfd739 said:


> I know of 2 of the services mentioned and Id pass on both of them.



Curious . . . which two and why?


----------



## Flight-LP (Sep 24, 2011)

RiderMedic said:


> Been to Houston and have no desire to live there.
> 
> 
> 
> Curious . . . which two and why?



Can't read people's minds, but I bet Guardian is one of them. lol

Personal experience, they are an unorganized private service that is very minimal in the area of pay, employee wellfare, morale, and delivered level of quality.

What's wrong with Houston if you don't mind me asking? Great shopping, one of the best (if not the best) housing markets, an economy that is much more stable than many out there, great schools, a lot of entertainment available, and some of the most progressive reputable EMS systems around. Of course we have some of the most notorous and crappy privates around, but that is a different story.....................


----------



## shfd739 (Sep 24, 2011)

What he said ^^^^


Sent from my electronic overbearing life controller


----------



## bigbaldguy (Sep 25, 2011)

RiderMedic said:


> Been to Houston and have no desire to live there.
> 
> 
> 
> Curious . . . which two and why?



I felt the same way about Houston, but believe it or not there are some decent areas, it's not all red necks and inner city here. I would pass on Corpus. If you are dead set against Houston I'd look at Austin or Dallas. There's just really not much going on in Corpus.


----------



## shfd739 (Sep 25, 2011)

I know of a company with a bunch of openings in Temple...Course it is Temple. But the future looks bright


----------



## RiderMedic (Sep 25, 2011)

shfd739 said:


> I know of a company with a bunch of openings in Temple...Course it is Temple. But the future looks bright



I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you're referring to Acadian, which does look like a nice company I'll give you that and they also have their own Critical Care protocols separate from standard ALS protocols which is nice except that IABP requires a nurse or tech to go along when I'm used to going alone half the time now on an IABP transport and if we have more than 3 drips another medic automatically goes along and I use his pump in addition to mine NOT start taking facility iv pumps! Sorry, rant off.

As far as Corpus/Rockport area goes it's just I'm from Long Island and I love the water, fishing, boating, etc, and Rockport just seems like a nice place to settle down as well but as always I'm keeping my options, like Williamson, open just in case.

Also, I spent 6 years landlocked in Pittsburgh and it wasn't fun. :sad:


----------



## Fish (Sep 25, 2011)

Do you prefer Private over County run? We have great County run services out here, and the privates do not hold many 911 contracts.


----------



## RiderMedic (Sep 25, 2011)

Fish said:


> Do you prefer Private over County run? We have great County run services out here, and the privates do not hold many 911 contracts.



First, sorry I didn't reply to PM but apparently you need a minimum of 5 posts before you can send a PM lol, and secondly, I can go either way when it comes to employers. I look for quality of benefits, pay, protocols, equipment, and employee retention over whether it's private  or not. And as far as 911 versus Critical Care Transport again I can go either way. Both have their pros and cons.


----------



## Emt512 (Sep 25, 2011)

ok, first corpus and the surrounding suburbs of nueces county...is a  firefighter/ems service at the county level. All are paramedics so private ems companies from rockport to mcallen have a stock pile of paramedic certified firefighters. Not sure about the hospitals and the er-tech positions offered around there...Guardian EMS runs out in the boonies in between San Anton and Corpus..They run 911 outside of Nueces and in Alice, tx... . Another I worked when I was down there was Five-star EMS. Theyre a local private transport in Corpus Christi, ran by good people, and pay is decent with 24 hour shifts...last time I checked. Lived there for a year or so and Have no need to ever go back, way better places to live in Texas.


----------



## RiderMedic (Sep 25, 2011)

Emt512 said:


> ok, first corpus and the surrounding suburbs of nueces county...is a  firefighter/ems service at the county level. All are paramedics so private ems companies from rockport to mcallen have a stock pile of paramedic certified firefighters. Not sure about the hospitals and the er-tech positions offered around there...Guardian EMS runs out in the boonies in between San Anton and Corpus..They run 911 outside of Nueces and in Alice, tx... . Another I worked when I was down there was Five-star EMS. Theyre a local private transport in Corpus Christi, ran by good people, and pay is decent with 24 hour shifts...last time I checked. Lived there for a year or so and Have no need to ever go back, way better places to live in Texas.



Thanks for the info. Appreciated. As far as living goes, I'm looking at possibly Rockport NOT Corpus. After 17 years of Metro area living [Los Angeles, Chicago, Pittsburgh, NY] I'm looking forward to a quiet, laidback kind of living when I get home from work. Again, all options are still open.


----------



## RocketMedic (Sep 28, 2011)

Does a town of 2000 in the desert sound good?


----------



## akjim99 (Sep 29, 2011)

*Extreme Caution*

Use extreme caution when choosing a private service.  While there are some that are very legitimate, others are very low-tier.  Your experience is more than that of the average private medic in Texas.  I worked for years in Texas, and once owned a service in San Antonio.  My suggestion - find a decent service, county if possible, then look into Austin/Travis County EMS.  Away from the Gulf, but very nice.  Then look into the various air services, particularly AirEvac Lifeteam.  Your background in CCT would be a big plus.  Also, don't give up on the Houston area.  Look into Baytown and Galveston, as well as Brazoria County.  There are others, but again, use caution with the small privates.  I hear MedStar in FW is hiring with great salaries.


----------



## RiderMedic (Sep 29, 2011)

akjim99 said:


> Use extreme caution when choosing a private service.  While there are some that are very legitimate, others are very low-tier.



Oh, you have no idea . . . bouncing paychecks, medical plan still being paid for out of paycheck AFTER employer cancels all medical coverage without telling anyone, schedules being changed with no notice and employees being told to accept new schedule or be let go, etc. Yeah I've experienced my share of bad private services. . .




akjim99 said:


> Your experience is more than that of the average private medic in Texas.  I worked for years in Texas, and once owned a service in San Antonio.  My suggestion - find a decent service, county if possible, then look into Austin/Travis County EMS.  Away from the Gulf, but very nice.  Then look into the various air services, particularly AirEvac Lifeteam.  Your background in CCT would be a big plus.  Also, don't give up on the Houston area.  Look into Baytown and Galveston, as well as Brazoria County.  There are others, but again, use caution with the small privates.  I hear MedStar in FW is hiring with great salaries.



Thanks. I see AirEvac is hiring down in McAllen. Might look into that if they're still looking when I'm closer to leaving NY.


----------



## Fish (Sep 29, 2011)

Read this before you consider McAllen

http://www.city-data.com/city/McAllen-Texas.html


----------



## MusicMedic (Oct 6, 2011)

Austin-Travis county EMS is hiring i believe.. or at least accepting applications, they run dual medic and i heard they were a good service to work for.

if your willing to work for Fire based EMS go to Firejobs.com and look up Texas, theres at least 6-7 departments hiring Medics only (some small cities and some bigger) 

Im testing for San Antonio Fire on Saturday.. i hope i can get in cause from what i hear its an awesome department and an awesome city!


----------



## STXmedic (Oct 6, 2011)

MusicMedic said:


> Im testing for San Antonio Fire on Saturday.. i hope i can get in cause from what i hear its an awesome department and an awesome city!


I didn't realize the test was already here! Good luck! It's definitely a great department to work for. Pay and benefits can't be beat, great camaraderie, and plenty of any type of call you can imagine (except cold exposures...). Our EMS has a bad rap, but we've already made some big changes, and have even bigger ones coming soon. If you have any questions, PM me


----------



## Fish (Oct 6, 2011)

PoeticInjustice said:


> I didn't realize the test was already here! Good luck! It's definitely a great department to work for. Pay and benefits can't be beat, great camaraderie, and plenty of any type of call you can imagine (except cold exposures...). Our EMS has a bad rap, but we've already made some big changes, and have even bigger ones coming soon. If you have any questions, PM me



I am glad to hear you guys are trying to better the rep and service, it has got a bad rap lately. What kind of things are you guys doing to improve? WHAT NO COLD EXPOSURES!


----------



## STXmedic (Oct 7, 2011)

Fish said:


> I am glad to hear you guys are trying to better the rep and service, it has got a bad rap lately. What kind of things are you guys doing to improve? WHAT NO COLD EXPOSURES!



Yeah, it's been much needed. We're creating ways to start letting guys out of EMS and back into fire to address the burnout issue. Some huge SMOP revisions are in the very near future, adding some new pieces of equipment, and tons of new drugs. I've personally noticed some better efforts at QA/QI for the crews. And it seems like (perhaps out of a little culture change), less and less guys are getting dragged in to EMS kicking and screaming. Moral is finally getting better in EMS here.


----------



## Fish (Oct 8, 2011)

PoeticInjustice said:


> Yeah, it's been much needed. We're creating ways to start letting guys out of EMS and back into fire to address the burnout issue. Some huge SMOP revisions are in the very near future, adding some new pieces of equipment, and tons of new drugs. I've personally noticed some better efforts at QA/QI for the crews. And it seems like (perhaps out of a little culture change), less and less guys are getting dragged in to EMS kicking and screaming. Moral is finally getting better in EMS here.



Do all you can to stop the spread of Acadian, I know they have closed in on some of your old response area.


----------



## shfd739 (Oct 8, 2011)

Fish said:


> Do all you can to stop the spread of Acadian, I know they have closed in on some of your old response area.



Stop the spread of Acadian? Ouch. Acadian hasn't closed on any of SAFD's response area. 


Sent from my electronic overbearing life controller


----------



## STXmedic (Oct 8, 2011)

They're like herpes, once they're in, there's no getting rid of them  

And actually, I do believe there were two or three areas that y'all took from us (though I doubt any of our guys were complaining  )


----------



## Fish (Oct 8, 2011)

How many Medic units do you run?


----------



## STXmedic (Oct 9, 2011)

I want to say about 30, with a few 8 to 12hr peak ambulances


----------



## RiderMedic (Nov 17, 2011)

Over a month now and I've haven't gotten anywhere really, despite follow ups. 1 already said no and 1 took their ad down. Other than that, no interviews, no phone calls, not even my references have been called. I've applied to the following companies and most of them were showing openings on their websites. If anyone can suggest any other company it'd be appreciated.

Funny . . . in 10 years of EMS I've never had a problem getting employed before lol. In fact, it was usually quite quick.

Anyways, thank you.

The List (so far):

Acadian
AMR
CareFlite
MedicOne
City of La Porte
Galveston County
Guardian EMS
Clute EMS
Ventura EMS
Halo Flight
Reach Air
Aransas County EMS
Matagorda County EMS
First Medical Response of Texas
Children's Medical Center (Dallas)
Omniflight
Fort Bend County EMS
East Texas Medical Center
MedStar
Bay Star EMS


----------



## RocketMedic (Nov 17, 2011)

That bad? Worrying, considering I'm soon to be in the same boat.


----------



## RiderMedic (Nov 17, 2011)

Rocketmedic40 said:


> That bad? Worrying, considering I'm soon to be in the same boat.



Honestly, I have no idea what's going on. Like I said, never had a problem before and most of the companies I listed had openings so they are, supposedly, hiring. One even stated SIX openings.

Maybe it's the fact that I'm from NY that they just aren't taking my apps seriously. Sad, cause I'm going to be needing a job in place before I can move because I don't know any apartment complex that rents to the unemployed lol and I'd hate to lease a place in city A and then get a job offer in city B 5 hours away.

:wacko:


----------



## shfd739 (Nov 17, 2011)

Have you applied for a Texas Cert yet? The state is taking forever to process new cert apps. Which Acadian area did you apply for?


----------



## RiderMedic (Nov 17, 2011)

shfd739 said:


> Have you applied for a Texas Cert yet? The state is taking forever to process new cert apps. Which Acadian area did you apply for?



I've had my cert since August and back in October I had applied to San Antonio branch (which STILL shows an opening) and today I also applied to the Dallas branch just to increase my chances lol.


----------



## shfd739 (Nov 17, 2011)

RiderMedic said:


> I've had my cert since August and back in October I had applied to San Antonio branch (which STILL shows an opening) and today I also applied to the Dallas branch just to increase my chances lol.



Im pretty sure San Antonio still has openings and shortly will probably have more. Ill ask my wife when she gets home how the staffing is looking.

Send me a PM with your name and info and Ill ask our HR rep what a status might be on Monday.


----------



## RiderMedic (Nov 17, 2011)

Thanks!

Sent PM.


----------



## RocketMedic (Nov 17, 2011)

We're hiring at Culberson County EMS...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Horn,_Texas.

Small Town USA?


----------



## RiderMedic (Nov 17, 2011)

Rocketmedic40 said:


> We're hiring at Culberson County EMS...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Horn,_Texas.
> 
> Small Town USA?



Might be a wee bit too small for me, lol, but you never know though. Thanks for the heads up.


----------



## RocketMedic (Nov 17, 2011)

We have a Dollar General...


----------



## Fish (Nov 17, 2011)

Rocketmedic40 said:


> We have a Dollar General...



And a stoplight?


----------



## Fish (Nov 17, 2011)

Williamson County EMS (Hires in Feb)
Austin-Travis County EMS (Hiring Now)
Montgomery County EMS (Hiring Now)
Harris County ESD#1 (Not sure)
Fayette County EMS
Washington County EMS
Waller County EMS
Rockwall County EMS

There are some more for you, I tried listing them in order of pay for you but I may have gotten 1 or two mixed up.

I can't believe you haven't gotten a Call back from Galveston or some of those larger Privates


----------



## bigdogems (Nov 17, 2011)

Just throwing it out there. You can look into off shore


----------



## RiderMedic (Nov 17, 2011)

Fish said:


> Williamson County EMS (Hires in Feb)
> Austin-Travis County EMS (Hiring Now)
> Montgomery County EMS (Hiring Now)
> Harris County ESD#1 (Not sure)
> ...



Thanks for the list and neither can I. 4 years of critical care transport experience doesn't mean much, I guess lol.

Actually, I did apply to Montgomery County on November 4th. Still says in "HR Review." Just like all the other job portals lol


----------



## RiderMedic (Nov 17, 2011)

bigdogems said:


> Just throwing it out there. You can look into off shore



Honestly, it's crossed my mind but the scheduling would make it hard due to home responsibilities.


----------



## Fish (Nov 17, 2011)

RiderMedic said:


> Thanks for the list and neither can I. 4 years of critical care transport experience doesn't mean much, I guess lol.
> 
> Actually, I did apply to Montgomery County on November 4th. Still says in "HR Review." Just like all the other job portals lol



I don't know what to tell you, those Private services have SUCH high turnovers that they are always looking for people.

Do you have something that is holding you back in yourbackground or something? Maybe they are just upset that the Giants beat Dallas


----------



## RocketMedic (Nov 17, 2011)

Fish said:


> And a stoplight?



Two of them, actually!


----------



## RocketMedic (Nov 17, 2011)

Fish said:


> Williamson County EMS (Hires in Feb)
> Austin-Travis County EMS (Hiring Now)
> Montgomery County EMS (Hiring Now)
> Harris County ESD#1 (Not sure)
> ...



How long does the hiring process take for some of these?


----------



## Shishkabob (Nov 17, 2011)

Champion EMS out in east Texas... they cover what ETMC doesn't.


MedStar:  I know you said you applied there, but I also DO know they are currently looking for medics.  Have you gone to the online test part yet or have they just not even said anything back?  If they just haven't said anything back, give it time, they get a lot of applications.  If need be, call and just inquire from HR about it.


----------



## RocketMedic (Nov 17, 2011)

Both MedStar and Champion look like great companies.


----------



## Fish (Nov 17, 2011)

Rocketmedic40 said:


> How long does the hiring process take for some of these?



For the first 5 on my list it is a 3 day process, the others? I have no clue.


----------



## RiderMedic (Nov 17, 2011)

Fish said:


> I don't know what to tell you, those Private services have SUCH high turnovers that they are always looking for people.
> 
> Do you have something that is holding you back in yourbackground or something? Maybe they are just upset that the Giants beat Dallas



The Giants beat Dallas? Well, my dad is happy. He hates Dallas lol.

And no, nothing in my background. Of course, that would be hard to find as they haven't contacted any employers or references yet and I have no criminal history and a good driving record.


----------



## RiderMedic (Nov 17, 2011)

Rocketmedic40 said:


> Both MedStar and Champion look like great companies.



Forgot . . . I applied to Champion, too lol.

*sigh*


----------



## usalsfyre (Nov 17, 2011)

Try calling. Many places see New York on the application and put it in the round filing cabinet. Just moving to a different city in the state took phone calls for me to do.


----------



## RiderMedic (Nov 17, 2011)

usalsfyre said:


> Try calling. Many places see New York on the application and put it in the round filing cabinet. Just moving to a different city in the state took phone calls for me to do.



That's what I'm fearing but as I stated in an earlier post how can I move to somewhere when I don't know whereI'll be working lol and secondly, who in the world would rent an apartment to someone that has NONE written in the employment section of the leasing application?

It's an evil catch-22.


----------



## usalsfyre (Nov 17, 2011)

Just make a couple of phone calls to HR at the places you've applied to show your actually serious and not BS'ing and wasting their time. My service is hiring in the metroplex, we're in the middle of some restructuring right now.


----------



## bigdogems (Nov 17, 2011)

I have to agree with it being a problem with you being out of state. I understand your problem but most places want someone who can start as soon as they give an offer or shortly after.


----------

