AMR San Diego

[terrible one]

Possibly moving to SD county to finish school and I see that AMR San Diego is hiring. I've looked through some threads here on them and it doesn't seem that they have a very positive reputation but I don't see exactly why?
I know they don't pay the greatest (especially for SD county) but why exactly does no one like it there? Management? Equipment? EOA? Schedule? If anyway that has worked there or currently does I'd appreciate the feedback. Feel free to P/M me if needed.
Thanks

 

[MusicMedic]

Possibly moving to SD county to finish school and I see that AMR San Diego is hiring. I've looked through some threads here on them and it doesn't seem that they have a very positive reputation but I don't see exactly why?
I know they don't pay the greatest (especially for SD county) but why exactly does no one like it there? Management? Equipment? EOA? Schedule? If anyway that has worked there or currently does I'd appreciate the feedback. Feel free to P/M me if needed.
Thanks

AMR San Deigo has been hiring for a while for Medics, ever since January when i got my EMT-B there has been an open position for Medics in SD...

i dont know anything about the branch though..

id like to know more about that branch though as well so feel free anyone to post thoughts/comments here!!

 

[emtstudent04]

AMR SD is a good company very hard to get on with though. I put in an application at the end of March and have checked up on my application a few times and the HR lady said there not hiring for EMT-B for awhile her guess was 3-6 months. They run in Alpine, La Mesa, Rancho San Diego, Chula Vista And i think South Bay. I think there like rural metro maybe a little slower but there BLS Units run down graded 911 calls if its not to severe.

 

[SanDiegoEmt7]

The situation is different for EMT-B and Medics.

From what I have heard their management has some issues, but that's all word of mouth stuff. Most of their reputation issues come from the fact that they use to run most of San Diego but due to the poor performance Rural Metro/SDMSE ended up swooping their contract away. Rumor has it that Rural Metro may also end up stealing more contracts from them in the future, seeing as SDMSE dispatches for many of the different FD's that AMR runs with.

 

[terrible one]

Thanks for the reply. I did see that a few years back they controlled a larger area in San Diego. I think I'd rather work for R/M but I will be moving soon and would need a job fairly quick.
Anyone else have info on them?

 

[atropine]

They are stationed with some of the FD's, do what the fire medic tells you and you will do fine.

 

[terrible one]

They are stationed with some of the FD's, do what the fire medic tells you and you will do fine.

sorry looking for more info on AMR not R/M, thanks

 

[atropine]

sorry looking for more info on AMR not R/M, thanks

Yeah, Iam talking about amr.

 

[medic417]

They are stationed with some of the FD's, do what the fire medic tells you and you will do fine.

Why so he can become a crappy medic to?

 

[atropine]

Why so he can become a crappy medic to?

no so when bidding time comes around he can get some good spots, I don't know what the heck you blabbing about, crappy medic, I don't follow.

 

[adamjh3]

B)




EDIT: actually, I'll put my $.02 in before it starts. There are terrible fire/medics, there are terrible single role medics, there are crappy CCT Nurses, and there are crappy RTs, there are Basics that love their job's, and some that are burnt-out and hate every minute of it. I still haven't really formed my own opinion on combined Fire/EMS yet, I haven't been in the field long enough to do so, but the one moment that really got me into wanting to do EMS was when I did a ride at a fire station. There was a call that many on here would qualify as the "BS 0300 toe-pain call" the medics (fire/medics, by the way) went well out of their way to make the patient comfortable and explained what options they had in place of dialing 911 in the future. THAT is the call that made me want to get in the field, not the "whoa dude, gnarly trauma with entrapment" call that a lot of people come in for.

 

[terrible one]

Why so he can become a crappy medic to?

I'd really rather this thread not go that route, thanks.

no so when bidding time comes around he can get some good spots, I don't know what the heck you blabbing about, crappy medic, I don't follow.

thanks for the info Atropine I thought it was just R/M at the fire stations. I actually prefer our own space though. I'm guessing it's the East county and rural areas AMR is at a fire station?

 

[atropine]

I'd really rather this thread not go that route, thanks.




thanks for the info Atropine I thought it was just R/M at the fire stations. I actually prefer our own space though. I'm guessing it's the East county and rural areas AMR is at a fire station?

Yeah, some east county departments like La Mesa, San Miguel house amr at the stations, as well as National City Fd, and Imperial Beach FD.

 

[dmiracco]

AMR has alot of upper managment and HR issues.

 

[Sandog]

Yeah, some east county departments like La Mesa, San Miguel house amr at the stations, as well as National City Fd, and Imperial Beach FD.

Eww, Nasty city (National City), not the best of neighborhoods. Wear a bullet proof vest if you work there. La Mesa is fairly nice.

 

[thegreypilgrim]

I have a friend who works there. According to him the pay is terrible - starting at a whopping $11/hr and with San Diego cost of living. As with nearly any other private ambulance service, I imagine it's not particularly well managed as well, so keep that in mind. Also, I've come to realize that this is true for most AMR divisions, but it's particularly true of their San Diego division that you need to constantly pester them about your app status and when they're going to start interviewing. I applied there months ago and even though they're hiring paramedics I never got a call back because I didn't hound them about it like my friend did.

They cover a large portion of south San Diego county, most of which comprise the lower socioeconomic regions of SD - particularly Chula Vista ("Chulajuana") and National City. Some of AMR's units are stationed with the local fire departments as well, but I'm not sure which ones.

Rural/Metro is an interesting entity. They've formed what appears to be a public utility model with many SD county fire departments in the creation of the San Diego Medical Service Enterprise (SDMSE). I applied there as well some time ago, but when I stopped by to drop off my app the HR rep informed me that SDMSE prefers to not hire outside medics, but instead promotes EMT's to medics from within after sending them to Palomar or Southwest to get their EMT-P training.

Good luck with everything.

 

[MusicMedic]

I have a friend who works there. According to him the pay is terrible - starting at a whopping $11/hr and with San Diego cost of living. As with nearly any other private ambulance service, I imagine it's not particularly well managed as well, so keep that in mind. Also, I've come to realize that this is true for most AMR divisions, but it's particularly true of their San Diego division that you need to constantly pester them about your app status and when they're going to start interviewing. I applied there months ago and even though they're hiring paramedics I never got a call back because I didn't hound them about it like my friend did.

$11/hr but how much of that is overtime?

 

[thegreypilgrim]

$11/hr but how much of that is overtime?

I imagine 16 out of the 24 (from what I understand, ALS shifts are only 24 hours there) is time and a half, but even then that only works out to around $1400 per paycheck (biweekly). That works out to a yearly salary of around $33,600 which is damn near poverty if you're trying to eek out an existence in the San Diego area. You'd have to live in the not-so-nice areas of it or work so much OT you don't even see your moderately nice apartment/town home/condo in a decent area.

 

[MusicMedic]

I imagine 16 out of the 24 (from what I understand, ALS shifts are only 24 hours there) is time and a half, but even then that only works out to around $1400 per paycheck (biweekly). That works out to a yearly salary of around $33,600 which is damn near poverty if you're trying to eek out an existence in the San Diego area. You'd have to live in the not-so-nice areas of it or work so much OT you don't even see your moderately nice apartment/town home/condo in a decent area.

thats true, but it sure as hell beats the 9.50/hr with very little opportunity for OT at my company!!

lucky i live with parents

 

[thegreypilgrim]

thats true, but it sure as hell beats the 9.50/hr with very little opportunity for OT at my company!!

lucky i live with parents

I would imagine EMT wages for AMR-SD are pretty similar to what you're looking at or perhaps even less.

One thing about San Diego is the fiscally conservative atmosphere there resists quite strongly the prospect of compensating its public servants in a competitive fashion (although AMR is a private organization, attitudes permeate). I can't say I blame them entirely though. There's just something inherently wrong about a FF/Engineer pulling in $120,000/year with hardly more than a high school diploma for an education (as is the case with several departments up your way in OC). Still, it would be nice if AMR at least pretended to value having educated employees by offering some sort of bonus pay - which FD's actually do, and AMR doesn't.