# BLS vs ALS in San Diego and Riverside counties



## smelleecat (Aug 3, 2010)

Looking for some info on how the BLS and ALS rigs are run in San Diego and Riverside counties. My boyfriend works for AMR in Hemet, CA (Riverside Co.) which according to him has the contract for Riverside county. However, I live here in San Diego and would like to work here because I don't wanna drive that far. Rural Metro seems to have the contract for San Diego city but does anyone know who has the contract for the surrounding cities and if they are 1 medic 1 emt or only 2 medics? El Cajon, Chula Vista, National City (i think AMR nat city)...
I think rural metro is 1 medic 1 emt but im not sure. Of course, I want to work for the rigs with the contract so I can get experience with ALS and trauma, etc but it has to be incredibly hard to get into RM. Any input appreciated. Thanks


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## JPINFV (Aug 3, 2010)

Looking through websites, it looks like Chula Vista is AMR for transport (not sure if AMR's response is EMT or paramedic), National City is AMR paramedic units, and El Cajon appears to be the fire department providing transport.


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## exodus (Aug 3, 2010)

Rural AMR is B/P some Metro is B/P Everywhere else is P/P. Btw. if your bf wants to trade jobs, he can come down here  I'm moving to Hemet....


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## emtstudent04 (Aug 3, 2010)

Rural metro is very hard to get on with at least it has been for me. I applied there back in Feb and never got a call back then i was told by the HR lady to re-apply which i did back on July 12th so im hoping when they do hire again maybe i will get lucky. AMR is the hardest of them all to get on with because they never hire EMT-B if they do it's like once a year maybe twice. I applied there back at the end of March and kept calling and checking with them and the lady told me that there not hiring for the rest of the year. They usually hire from with in the company from what she told me and then they go to the applications if need be. Care, Pacific, Alert, Balboa, South Bay seem to be the ones who hire constantly which i had an interview with 2 of those companies and didn't get on with either of them. :angry:


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## Sandog (Aug 3, 2010)

Chula Vista only has BLS, even the firefighter medics can only work as BLS. They are working to change that.


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## jgmedic (Aug 3, 2010)

smelleecat said:


> Looking for some info on how the BLS and ALS rigs are run in San Diego and Riverside counties. My boyfriend works for AMR in Hemet, CA (Riverside Co.) which according to him has the contract for Riverside county. However, I live here in San Diego and would like to work here because I don't wanna drive that far. Rural Metro seems to have the contract for San Diego city but does anyone know who has the contract for the surrounding cities and if they are 1 medic 1 emt or only 2 medics? El Cajon, Chula Vista, National City (i think AMR nat city)...
> I think rural metro is 1 medic 1 emt but im not sure. Of course, I want to work for the rigs with the contract so I can get experience with ALS and trauma, etc but it has to be incredibly hard to get into RM. Any input appreciated. Thanks



who is he. i work for AMR Hemet too.


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## sdadam (Aug 4, 2010)

The Major players of San Diego EMS are AMR and Rural Metro.

Both are somewhat difficult to get on with if you have no experience.

AMR is responsible for ALS transports in Chula Vista, National City, The San Miguel Fire Protection District, Lemon Grove, La Mesa, Alpine, Jamul and Campo. The east county rural units cover several other areas adjacent to Alpine, Jamul, and Campo.

All 911 units are two paramedics, for a long time the rural units were EMT / Paramedic but within the past year this has changed and AMR San Diego no longer runs any EMT / Paramedic rigs. ALS units work 24 hour kelley schedules.

AMR San Diego BLS spans the entire county as do all BLS services. They are moderately busy, and work 12 hour shifts with alternate 3 and 4 day weeks. AMR Employs CCT-RNs for interfacility transports.

AMR is difficult to get on with, they will tell you straight out to go to one of the smaller ambulance services for experience. The EMT pool in san diego is saturated so getting any kind of EMT job at all right now is pretty difficult, so you have to be persistant everywhere.

Rural Metro runs the ALS for the city of San Diego, they work 12 hour units and run with an EMT driver and a Paramedic. They are probably the most difficult of all the services to get hired on with as they are the highest profile and get the most applications. They employ RNs for interfacility  CCT transport.

Metros BLS units work 10 hour shifts and are moderately busy as well.

There is also a company called Mercy Ambulance who have ALS contracts in the rural north east portion of the county, covering places like Valley Center and Palomar Mountain. I Don't know much about Mercy but I think they are EMT / Paramedic with 24 hour shifts.

All other companies listed below are BLS some with CCT and some without.

Care is the next largest ambulance company running a good deal of BLS ambulances and having a partner company Med First which provides CCT-RNs for critical care transport. They are a good company and a lot of EMTs in San Diego get their start there. They run 10 and 12 hour shifts I believe.

Here is a quick list of the small ambulance providers in the county:

Balboa: mostly north county (Tri-City Medical Center is their major contract)

AmeriCare: Have some money, nice rigs 24hr shifts, laptops for charting.

Pacific: Nothing special, a few 24hr shifts but you need a lot of seniority.

AirCare: 24hr shifts, and the opportunity after some time to work on fixed wing interfacility transport flights with an RN.

Alert: Nothing special.

South Bay: 24hr shifts.

Priority One: Nothing Special.

Schafer: Has paramedic contracts in Imperial County, so you could work for them as a medic out there after paramedic school, 24hr shifts.

GreyHound Ambulance: brand new, I don't know if they are running calls yet.

Max Care?: Also brand new, I don't know much about them.

Let me know if you have any other questions about San Diego EMS.


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## exodus (Aug 4, 2010)

Pacific has much more than you said. We have several dedicated CCT units, in SD and vista. We run several emergent CCT's out of Scripps Chula (code 3 neuros). And all Traumas out of Thornton and Encinitas.

Pacific does *much* more than regular BLS...


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## JPINFV (Aug 4, 2010)

^
I've seen your CCT unit from the 78 stationed down the road from TriCities.


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## exodus (Aug 4, 2010)

JPINFV said:


> ^
> I've seen your CCT unit from the 78 stationed down the road from TriCities.



Yup, That's our vista station 78/Emerald. Edit: there's 4 units stationed there


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## sdadam (Aug 4, 2010)

All BLS Companies run CCTs, the ones without their own nurses contract out to one of the two CCT-RN Companies in the county (MedFirst and CCT-RNs).

For a BLS Company CCTs ARE nothing special. No offense.

I'm not trying to talk down, it's just how things are. 

I was an EMT for 5 years in San Diego prior to becoming a Paramedic, I have worked for three of the companies on the above list and four of the EDs in the county, I went to medic school with several people who worked at Pacific as well as most of the other companies in the county. 

I stand by what I said, BLS is exactly the same at any of the companies above including AMR and Rural Metro.


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## smelleecat (Aug 6, 2010)

exodus said:


> Rural AMR is B/P some Metro is B/P Everywhere else is P/P. Btw. if your bf wants to trade jobs, he can come down here  I'm moving to Hemet....


Lol exodus, he still works there part time. thats also where I did my emt internship. Are you gonna try to get a job at AMR in Hemet?


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## smelleecat (Aug 6, 2010)

jgmedic said:


> who is he. i work for AMR Hemet too.


jgmedic, Steve Phillips. He only works part time now as he is now active duty in the marine corps.


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## smelleecat (Aug 6, 2010)

sdadam said:


> The Major players of San Diego EMS are AMR and Rural Metro.
> 
> Both are somewhat difficult to get on with if you have no experience.
> 
> ...


ya i talked to a guy who works for Care at the togos off camino del rio and he said in the 6 months he has worked for Care ambulance, hes only gotten 20 ALS calls. Not too bad if you're trying to get experience. I've heard the market is saturated in SD county too. Sucks, thinking I may try to be an ER tech at a hospital for awhile instead. Although nothing like prehospital trauma care. You cant get that in a hospital.


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## smelleecat (Aug 6, 2010)

exodus said:


> Yup, That's our vista station 78/Emerald. Edit: there's 4 units stationed there


Exodus, how many ALS calls do you get on average? And when are you moving to Hemet btw and uhhh why? Hemet is icky


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## exodus (Aug 6, 2010)

smelleecat said:


> Exodus, how many ALS calls do you get on average? And when are you moving to Hemet btw and uhhh why? Hemet is icky



I'll run a report form our CAD tonight and get exact numbers for the last week. I wanna say around 25 CCT calls a day on a slow day. And at lest 3 or 4 actual emergency (STEMI / Neuro CCT IFT's)

We also have dedicated Neuro Unit in Scripps Chula, and a dedicated STEMI in Mission Hospital Mission viejo. So CCT *is* something special at pacific.

Edit: I'm moving up there this sunday to be with my girlfriend. If there's any spots for EMT's open for AMR up there. I would *LOVE* to get onto that if there are! I honestly dont care if it's IFT either. It'll save me 400/month in gas -.-


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## atropine (Aug 7, 2010)

go to the county with the more hottest chicks, and I think Riverside wins that one.^_^


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