I believe LA City would sub it to a staffing company first as they depend on the income. They are talking about downgrading more and more BLS calls to BLS only units (still LA City). They have used us for back up recently which has been unheard of ever before. There is no way they will give up control or make any major change as they will lose their 201 rights.
LACO. The committee has only spoken of adding CAAS and mileage and age limits to be lesser than what is allowed for non-emergency. Seems 150k miles and 5 years is mentioned but no specific type of units.
TFD has not gotten any changes approved by the State EMS and they would need to have the county run a bid and they would need to bid on it. The state guidelines would need to be followed to be able to award it to TFD to retain 201 rights or get them. Otherwise it will not be an EOA and subject to rotation.
Many FDs are trying to get the bread and butter by staffing a couple units and keeping them busy to get the most revenue and trying to get the private industry to thwart the cost of waiting for the 3rd plus active call before their wheels role. Unfortunately those plans leave little for the provider and become secondary. When privates take over a contract they are expected to provide at least some depth for back up of the primary units. With 2 units it would be impossible to cover Torrance and would provide no depth for back up. Surrounding cities will want to charge if they rely on the services too often and LA CO takes some time to respond to areas they are not responsible for as a primary and LA City generally wont do it or are just too busy. Staffing 2 would put lives at risk as they will not be able to subsidize an back up company off those revenues.
Morale: We get many first time EMTs that apply. Many first jobs. People want to run all 911 which we do not offer. We offer rotation into 911 areas but never totally 911 unless they are a station supervisor assigned to SAMO. We lose EMTs often times due to morale or money. The overwhelming majority of EMTs that stay in the industry request to come back. Probably close to 80% of those that go to other companies. That is a pretty good sign of a good company. What really sets people off is we have a no-rehire policy without a 100% approval vote from supervision/management and only if they gave a full 2 week notice. Generally once denied we see/hear that they are extremely disgruntled with us. We offer 24s and that is a rate thing. We do not want to offer 24s but we do it because every time we discuss eliminating them the crews want them. We do a ton for our crews by offering 8, 10, 12, and 24s and offer a ton of training programs to help them grow. The issue with many EMTs also is they really do not want to be EMTs and become frustrated waiting to become a cop, FF, Paramedic, nurse, etc., although we try to help them with these goals it is really up to them. We try to give them all we can to enjoy their jobs but really any day is up to them and if they make the best of it they will enjoy it if not the same day can be hated by someone else. In the past crossing units on non-emergency calls was a huge issue and we still strive to fix that but have gotten better. That is frustrating for EMTs and us. All in all ambulance companies are the same. We make less so our budget is tighter because we would never try the very profitable things that many LA Companies do (Dialysis and non-covered services and trying to make them covered). When your employees are asked to "create" justification or leave it blank you may make a ton more and may have an easier day but it is ILLEGAL and we wont do it or ask our staff to no matter how easy it would be to do it. We also wont give kickbacks to hospitals for lucrative contracts so we must operate in our "safe" budget. You can love your job if you come in and do you check sheet, do you station duties, and run your calls. I am always monitoring and always available for employee comments. I spend probably 2 hours a day responding to employees questions and comments. Not many owners would do that or walk away form the biggest non-emergency contract in LA only because it was causing morale issues. Hospitals often times treat EMTs poorly and that is frustrating and is difficult for EMTs to keep their head high and it is sad and not like that in other areas. Kaiser treated our staff, all of them, poorly and made our units run to death on long responses back to back. I elected to walk away from them solely based on how they treated us. The EMTs that worked for us during the Kaiser years can attest that it was horrible and we were run ragged with no thank yous just unfounded complaints. Bottom line is I care about our EMTs daily lives and we are family operated. Undercover boss would be rough since the EMT forms need to be filled out true and correct. I certainly don't mind running calls or going on long hard disaster responses myself.
The job is what it is. It is a stepping stone and Medicare is lowering rates over and over and more and more 911 agencies that do transport are coming up with alternative plans due to lower R/Is not being worth it. Downey tried but got no takers. Orange tried and got no takers.
I get occasional emails from EMT life so I pop on and try to explain things from my eyes. I don't do it that often and I just don't have the time with my regular job and 3 boys to raise but I do like to put it out there. Anyone can comment but don't take my lack of comment of agreeing or disagreeing just that I have said what I can and what you think of it or do with it is up to you.
LACO. The committee has only spoken of adding CAAS and mileage and age limits to be lesser than what is allowed for non-emergency. Seems 150k miles and 5 years is mentioned but no specific type of units.
TFD has not gotten any changes approved by the State EMS and they would need to have the county run a bid and they would need to bid on it. The state guidelines would need to be followed to be able to award it to TFD to retain 201 rights or get them. Otherwise it will not be an EOA and subject to rotation.
Many FDs are trying to get the bread and butter by staffing a couple units and keeping them busy to get the most revenue and trying to get the private industry to thwart the cost of waiting for the 3rd plus active call before their wheels role. Unfortunately those plans leave little for the provider and become secondary. When privates take over a contract they are expected to provide at least some depth for back up of the primary units. With 2 units it would be impossible to cover Torrance and would provide no depth for back up. Surrounding cities will want to charge if they rely on the services too often and LA CO takes some time to respond to areas they are not responsible for as a primary and LA City generally wont do it or are just too busy. Staffing 2 would put lives at risk as they will not be able to subsidize an back up company off those revenues.
Morale: We get many first time EMTs that apply. Many first jobs. People want to run all 911 which we do not offer. We offer rotation into 911 areas but never totally 911 unless they are a station supervisor assigned to SAMO. We lose EMTs often times due to morale or money. The overwhelming majority of EMTs that stay in the industry request to come back. Probably close to 80% of those that go to other companies. That is a pretty good sign of a good company. What really sets people off is we have a no-rehire policy without a 100% approval vote from supervision/management and only if they gave a full 2 week notice. Generally once denied we see/hear that they are extremely disgruntled with us. We offer 24s and that is a rate thing. We do not want to offer 24s but we do it because every time we discuss eliminating them the crews want them. We do a ton for our crews by offering 8, 10, 12, and 24s and offer a ton of training programs to help them grow. The issue with many EMTs also is they really do not want to be EMTs and become frustrated waiting to become a cop, FF, Paramedic, nurse, etc., although we try to help them with these goals it is really up to them. We try to give them all we can to enjoy their jobs but really any day is up to them and if they make the best of it they will enjoy it if not the same day can be hated by someone else. In the past crossing units on non-emergency calls was a huge issue and we still strive to fix that but have gotten better. That is frustrating for EMTs and us. All in all ambulance companies are the same. We make less so our budget is tighter because we would never try the very profitable things that many LA Companies do (Dialysis and non-covered services and trying to make them covered). When your employees are asked to "create" justification or leave it blank you may make a ton more and may have an easier day but it is ILLEGAL and we wont do it or ask our staff to no matter how easy it would be to do it. We also wont give kickbacks to hospitals for lucrative contracts so we must operate in our "safe" budget. You can love your job if you come in and do you check sheet, do you station duties, and run your calls. I am always monitoring and always available for employee comments. I spend probably 2 hours a day responding to employees questions and comments. Not many owners would do that or walk away form the biggest non-emergency contract in LA only because it was causing morale issues. Hospitals often times treat EMTs poorly and that is frustrating and is difficult for EMTs to keep their head high and it is sad and not like that in other areas. Kaiser treated our staff, all of them, poorly and made our units run to death on long responses back to back. I elected to walk away from them solely based on how they treated us. The EMTs that worked for us during the Kaiser years can attest that it was horrible and we were run ragged with no thank yous just unfounded complaints. Bottom line is I care about our EMTs daily lives and we are family operated. Undercover boss would be rough since the EMT forms need to be filled out true and correct. I certainly don't mind running calls or going on long hard disaster responses myself.
The job is what it is. It is a stepping stone and Medicare is lowering rates over and over and more and more 911 agencies that do transport are coming up with alternative plans due to lower R/Is not being worth it. Downey tried but got no takers. Orange tried and got no takers.
I get occasional emails from EMT life so I pop on and try to explain things from my eyes. I don't do it that often and I just don't have the time with my regular job and 3 boys to raise but I do like to put it out there. Anyone can comment but don't take my lack of comment of agreeing or disagreeing just that I have said what I can and what you think of it or do with it is up to you.
