Americare Santa Monica Station

[JohnnyB101]

Hey guys just looking on some insight on Americares 911 contract in Santa Monica . I saw on their website they are hiring for full time and part time employees for Santa Monica.... I'm still in school and currently working at PRN but in July I'm done with school. Just looking for some information on the typical day to day culture at the station and relationship with fire . Things Fire expect from you etc... Main type of calls in Santa Monica and how you guys navigate to calls, Thomas guides, GPS , etc.... and lastly the FTO process . I'm sure the hiring process is like any other job with written and skills and interview.

And I did research on Care and Mccormick already but I'm just curious about Americare at the moment . Want to know a little bit about all the 911s around me ahah. If anyone wants to throw in anything about AMR 911 contracts that would be incredible i don't really know too much about AMR other than they are huge ahah. Thanks Guys .

 

[Jim37F]

I never worked for AmeriCare, but i did interview with them a few years back, asking specifically about their Santa Monica contract (so slightly better than staying at a Holiday In Express last night right?)

Anyways, from what I know/have been told, there's anywhere from 4-6 units for Santa Monica but they still get sent on IFTs, Every Santa Monica Fire call is a Code 2 (no lights, no sirens, driving normal, following all rules of the road) unless, and only if, upgraded by SMFD on scene.

Besides that, all I can really tell you is that AmeriCare is a large, multi-county IFT company with only a handful of small, relatively isolated 911 contracts. When I interviewed, I was told all new hires are put wherever they're needed, 99% of the time it's an IFT unit and you have to bid for the 911 station, and that goes by seniority. I was told to expect minimum 3-6 months before I can start to expect to have enough seniority to get the SM station (think about the kind of turn over that represents for a second....)

Keep in mind this was back in 2012 so things could easily have changed, but the simple fact that they're a large IFT company with one small 911 contract in LACo has not. There's been persistent rumors that they're in danger of losing Santa Monica (in all fairness all the rumors I've heard have only been that, essentially water cooler gossip and when I was at Gerber, it was Gerber who was gonna pick it up...now that I'm at McCormick there's a few people here who seem to believe we're gonna pick it up any day.......and yet AmeriCare still runs the area all the same lol)

As far as AMR goes, they just lost their San Gabriel Valley EOA to Care (Schaefer also lost theirs to Care), so AMR only has 911 in Santa Clarita and the deserts north of the mountains in LA Co (Lancaster/Palmdale, etc)....however, AMR has the 911 contracts for the majority of Ventura County, San Bernardino Co, Riverside Co, significant chunks of San Diego Co.....and lots more upstate where unlike LA/OC, the AMR medic on the ambulance is the medic in charge of the call, fire is often BLS only, or relinquishes scene command to AMR for transport.....and not too far away, in Kern County, Hall Ambulance is also the scene authority for EMS calls as Kern co FD and Bakersfield FD are BLS only.....let me just say if you search the forum you'll find plenty of references to the Kern County Cult lol, they are very loyal to Hall for very good reason.....

 

[JohnnyB101]

Thanks brother I really appreciate all the info... Im definitely going to be applying to all the major 911s when my semester ends . And all typical AO programs take months to hear back from right ? Just like a fire hiring process I'm assuming ?

 

[RocketMedic]

Texas....where medics can really work.

 

[BryanR]

I know this is late, but I just learned a couple days ago that AmeriCare is not allowed to be first on scene in Santa Monica. If they happen to get there first, they stage away until SMFD gets on scene. Tells you a lot about what SMFD thinks of AmeriCare... (no offense to any AmeriScare peeps here )

 

[Woodtownemt]

When I use to work out in the field and would run in to Americare crews the conversations usually involved a lot of venting. Common issues were emt pay, run down equipment I.e. I talk to one crew who were pissed off because they had to run calls in a box with no AC and visible dents and missing parts. As a medic you make ok money as they tend to medics mostly. Emt get very little back. I know they like to dress up there employees in fancy Nomex but unless seniors start spontaneously combusting, it is more for show. I would stay at PRN and leave for a better company like AMR, McCor, Care, even hall if your willing to relocate. Has PRN improved since going union?

 

[RocketMedic]

In Houston, we do cool things like field blood transfusions.

 

[wtferick]

I know this is late, but I just learned a couple days ago that AmeriCare is not allowed to be first on scene in Santa Monica. If they happen to get there first, they stage away until SMFD gets on scene. Tells you a lot about what SMFD thinks of AmeriCare... (no offense to any AmeriScare peeps here )

I doubt it's because they use AmeriCare. Gerber had to do the same.

 

[VentMonkey]

It was forever ago, but IIRC AMR rolled code to all of their calls. Same LACO-style egos, different department. No big whoop.

@RocketMedic there's hardly a need for field transfusions when your hospitals are no more than 5-10 minutes apart within your respective district. Your (their) trauma center--which is a prestigious Level 1--is but another 10 minutes up the road. Seriously, California or not, that would be overkill IMO.

 

[RocketMedic]

It was forever ago, but IIRC AMR rolled code to all of their calls. Same LACO-style egos, different department. No big whoop.

@RocketMedic there's hardly a need for field transfusions when your hospitals are no more than 5-10 minutes apart within your respective district. Your (their) trauma center--which is a prestigious Level 1--is but another 10 minutes up the road. Seriously, California or not, that would be overkill IMO.

Depends. Houston traffic turns relatively short distances into very long trips. I once took 27 minutes to go 2 miles. Plus the area is surprisingly large, and magically touching the hospital does not necessarily mean treatment will begin.

 

[Jim37F]

I know this is late, but I just learned a couple days ago that AmeriCare is not allowed to be first on scene in Santa Monica. If they happen to get there first, they stage away until SMFD gets on scene. Tells you a lot about what SMFD thinks of AmeriCare... (no offense to any AmeriScare peeps here )

I doubt it's because they use AmeriCare. Gerber had to do the same.

Yuck. I used to work for Gerber and people always used to believe Torrance FD didn't allow us to be first on scene either, but that was never a Gerber policy. While it was relatively rare due to the mandated code 2 responses, it did happen occasionally we were first on before Torrance FD and it was never an issue.

(There was one time I got a priority 2 pickup, an IFT, out of a private residence in Torrance to take a lady to her Doctors office, I forget where exactly, but anyway we show up and the CC was shortness of breath......an acute SOB at that. Instead of calling 911 the lady called her PCP who apparently decided it was Ok for her to go straight to him, and get a same day appt.....never heard of anything like it before or since....Well, my partner that day was a Medic working a BLS shift for overtime, and he decided she needed to go ALS to the ER so with the Pt's ok we activated Torrance FD, who after getting on scene was confused about why we were there first...but that was the only time they said anything about us being first on) Now that McCormick has the Torrance contract, we're still stuck with the code 2 response and no policy about not being allowed first on either, have never been told to stage out to allow TFD to be first on.

 

[VentMonkey]

There was one time I got a priority 2 pickup, an IFT, out of a private residence in Torrance to take a lady to her Doctors office, I forget where exactly, but anyway we show up and the CC was shortness of breath......an acute SOB at that. Instead of calling 911 the lady called her PCP who apparently decided it was Ok for her to go straight to him, and get a same day appt.....never heard of anything like it before or since....Well, my partner that day was a Medic working a BLS shift for overtime, and he decided she needed to go ALS to the ER so with the Pt's ok we activated Torrance FD.

This is just sad.

 

[NomadicMedic]

This is just sad.

Same thing in King County WA. Privates told to stage and wait until they are requested by Fire on scene.

 

[VentMonkey]

Same thing in King County WA. Privates told to stage and wait until they are requested by Fire on scene.

Right, but I was referring more so to the fact that a paramedic picks up a BLS overtime shift, as an EMT, and has to call for another paramedic to provide paramedic care, after making sure it's ok with the patient, of course.

This is all too common back home. Firefighters-to-be with a merit badge letting that license sit just to get on with some FD. No knock to Jimbo, it's just the reality.

@NomadicMedic it does seem to parallel King County (Seattle?) from what you've remarked in past posts though.

 

[RocketMedic]

That sounds terribly silly.

 

[VentMonkey]

That sounds terribly silly.

To say the least? Yes. To further elaborate? It all too often transcends through their commonly deplorable "medicine".

Back on topic: steer clear of this company to all you up and coming SoCal "I want fire calls" EMT's. The top three, stick to them. Maybe an AO spot if you're that hard up to be in-house with fire.

 

[RocketMedic]

I'm guessing "his seizures are likely caused by heat stroke, exacerbated by a lack of proper nutrition and a complete failure to hydrate and a preexisting seizure disorder that has gone untreated for the last several weeks, so we should cool, replace fluid volume, and alternate versed/valium to mitigate refractory seizures, with a fallback of RSI if the seizures don't stop within five minutes" is a little too advanced for SoCal medicine?

*Without medical control consult, orders, or really anything other than a "there in ten minutes" notification to the ED.

 

[VentMonkey]

Who knows? Honestly, I'm not defining their medicine by what they can, and can't do protocol-wise; that means little to me.

I'm referring more to their judgement, or lack there of, and the fact that they take a "tactical approach" to patient care like they're attacking a fire. Where's the humanity, let alone compassionate medicine in all of that?

Put another way: you're given all of those tools, but lack proper judgement and don't color outside of the lines, what good are any of the skills, orders, or expanded scopes?

Also, I refuse to believe that there are providers anywhere--even in Texas--who don't possess such insights. So again, just because you can doesn't mean...well you get it.

Edit: one of my favorite critical care instructors beat into my head the difference between a paramedic and critical care paramedic is not their expanded scope, or skill set, it's their up-the-ante clinical insights and judgment. That there appealed to me the most about the advanced provider levels.

 

[RocketMedic]

I'm just pointing out how much better EMS is here in Texas than SoCal from the perspective of a clinician. We can do things like go on scene without firefighters. Or run calls without firefighters. Really (new guys), if you want to really explore what being a paramedic is, you need to get out of SoCal and come play in the big leagues