Sometimes lol, sometimes you are first on. I guess I should rephrase and say ask if you can help. Sometimes the answer is as you said and sometimes they appreciate it.
CARE ambulance
- Thread starter EMTelite
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Sometimes lol, sometimes you are first on. I guess I should rephrase and say ask if you can help. Sometimes the answer is as you said and sometimes they appreciate it.
I guess it depends on the crew. However, from the info I've learned through a few care employees I've met, the OC And LA fire crews have a huge chip on their shoulder and believe they rule the EMS world and everyone should be so greatful to be working for them. I know not everyone is like that but the majority are. It's that attitude that's separating and ruining the relation ship between fire and ambulance crews. We should be working in unison. Which makes for a better scene and better pt care.
Marinelayer
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In my experience, the majority of LA and OC fire crews are very appreciative of the work we do.
Totally depends on the crew, I ran two separate calls with the same engine/squad last night and the guys couldn't have been more cool. Same goes for another squad I ran with earlier, on the other hand I have had some not so good experiences with medics who like to be (insert choice word here) for no other reason then the hell of it. I don't do anything drastically different from run to run but it does seem to be received differently from medic to medic. Just try to shrug off some calls, learn from all of them and move on to the next to the one.
^^^ that's good to hear that some are appreciative and helpful for you. It's still a little sad to hear some crews are being jerks solimply cause they had the P card. They need to remember they cat do their job with out you and you can't do your job with our them. But it sounds like you have the rite attitude and take each call separately as it comes and make the best of the situation.
terrible one
Always wandering
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Actually since the privates have transporting units and the county does not you could do your job without them. Since there is no literature showing patients treated with ALS measures in highly urban areas have any better outcome than those treated with BLS intervention, I'd venture to say the city would be better off without them.
But that's a whole 'nother thread.
But that's a whole 'nother thread.
Good point
Uclabruin103
Forum Lieutenant
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You HAVE to have your OC accreditation in order to maintain employment at CARE. Letting any certification lapse is now grounds for termination, and best case scenario a write-up.
All crews are different. You can't lump up a whole county together in saying that one will let you do things while another wont. If you're respectful and nice they will generally let you do anything within your scope.
They also notice that if there's three of you, then one's a trainee and will be even more willing to let you do things. Don't be afraid to ask if you need help, or be honest when you can't get a BP.
While your with your FTO shifts and before you learn the areas focus a majority of your learning towards mapping. At CARE you can have a fire call drop on you at anytime regardless of what shift you're on, so if you don't know an area I hope that you'll have your map book open and be following along with your finger.
General things in regards to CARE for anyone interested:
-Will generally always have every supply that you are required to have
-With us being so short-staffed there's ample overtime now
-numerous shifts to work with a school schedule or other job
-Nice equipment, we're in the process of adding another 20 something rigs to the fleet
-Diverse areas to work in
-Mostly good operations managers
-Free food at some hospitals! Your FTO will let you know which ones
-6% matching 401k and good health benefits
-Our whittier station. 3 units in one station = fun times.
-
Cons:
-You will be posting throughout the night on most of our LA fire cars, regularly. 24 hours means 24 hours
-Posting
-Posting
-Posting
-Almost all feeling of that family owned and operated business are gone
-Lots of "bro-types" with our recent hiring frenzy. aka those that just want to go fire and work here ONLY because they think it'll look good on a resume and couldn't care less about their patients.
-Low 24 hour pay rate (as is the norm here)
-They've been on a little bit of a firing frenzy recently. Four people I know have gotten fired.
-White uniform shirts and a strict sweater policy.
-Road safety systems
-The ePCR with the slowest performing tablet PC ever
-The wireless connection in the rigs
-Some stations are one room hotels. Good luck sleeping if you have a snoring partner
-Did I mention posting?
PM if you have any questions.
All crews are different. You can't lump up a whole county together in saying that one will let you do things while another wont. If you're respectful and nice they will generally let you do anything within your scope.
They also notice that if there's three of you, then one's a trainee and will be even more willing to let you do things. Don't be afraid to ask if you need help, or be honest when you can't get a BP.
While your with your FTO shifts and before you learn the areas focus a majority of your learning towards mapping. At CARE you can have a fire call drop on you at anytime regardless of what shift you're on, so if you don't know an area I hope that you'll have your map book open and be following along with your finger.
General things in regards to CARE for anyone interested:
-Will generally always have every supply that you are required to have
-With us being so short-staffed there's ample overtime now
-numerous shifts to work with a school schedule or other job
-Nice equipment, we're in the process of adding another 20 something rigs to the fleet
-Diverse areas to work in
-Mostly good operations managers
-Free food at some hospitals! Your FTO will let you know which ones
-6% matching 401k and good health benefits
-Our whittier station. 3 units in one station = fun times.
-
Cons:
-You will be posting throughout the night on most of our LA fire cars, regularly. 24 hours means 24 hours
-Posting
-Posting
-Posting
-Almost all feeling of that family owned and operated business are gone
-Lots of "bro-types" with our recent hiring frenzy. aka those that just want to go fire and work here ONLY because they think it'll look good on a resume and couldn't care less about their patients.
-Low 24 hour pay rate (as is the norm here)
-They've been on a little bit of a firing frenzy recently. Four people I know have gotten fired.
-White uniform shirts and a strict sweater policy.
-Road safety systems
-The ePCR with the slowest performing tablet PC ever
-The wireless connection in the rigs
-Some stations are one room hotels. Good luck sleeping if you have a snoring partner
-Did I mention posting?
PM if you have any questions.
JPINFV
Gadfly
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Since this is the current Care thread, any idea on when the final decision comes down for the Santa Ana/OCFA contract (Care currently has an interim contract)?
CrackerBDingus
Forum Crew Member
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Probably due to being owned by Faulk now. Which may also explain the firing going on.
Who makes the rigs btw? I'm just wondering. And are the sirens digital, they sound kinda weak and high pitch so it just doesn't sound normal to me.
Uclabruin103
Forum Lieutenant
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Was talking to an ops and it was mentioned Falck has an agreement not to touch the operation side until later this year. They were primarily the funding source for our EPCR. We never see any infulence on their part except for the quarterly newsletter.
We have a few makers. Leader, road rescue and older onces that are Hortons. Only the new Chevy rigs have a digital growler. Our incoming 20ish rigs are the ford E-3 or E-4 and gas powered, havent heard good things about these.
Uclabruin103
Forum Lieutenant
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No mention to us but I'm sure it'll be either us or Doctor's. Would've loved if they actually did the OCFA ambulance transport. Would've loved the pay increase.
CrackerBDingus
Forum Crew Member
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I'm really hoping my company (Medix) will be able to stand up against CARE and Doctor's when it comes to bid time in a year. All three companies are just so good. And now care and doctor's have big backers who are established.
Uclabruin103
Forum Lieutenant
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I thought Medix was also acquired by AMR. Yeah we are all the same. Unless of course you're the city of Santa Monica and think Americare is a superiour provider. Sorry for the bashing, just bitter since I would've been able to walk to work if we got it.
JPINFV
Gadfly
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The problem Medix will have for a long time is the fact that they sued OCFA 5 or so years ago because they didn't like the requirements of the bid. Instead of dedicating ambulances to individual cities they wanted to treat all of their contiguous cities as one combined region and assign ambulances based off of that. Good idea? Certainly, but biting the hand that feeds you isn't the way to accomplish that.
CrackerBDingus
Forum Crew Member
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Medix is still family owned and still kicking. They had someone internally sabotage the billing a couple years back. Won't go into it more than that, but they're starting to grow again. They've done extremely well in Mission Viejo so far which may help lend them some credibility in this highly competitive environment. Problem is, if they manage to get back any of their 11 cities and anything else they want the hiring is going to be off the charts. And the fleet would need to be massively increased at the same time.