Hi there all.
What kind of cities offer EMS jobs similar to FDNY? As in, it's city (no privates), maybe part of a FD, offers 20, 25 or 30 year pension retirement with a chance to move up as in Lt, capt, chief etc and have a civil exam or similar to get in?
I am exploring my options.
Thank you.
I did five years in the NYC 911 system with North Shore-LIJ, and I worked at Hunter Ambulance before that for a short while (Inwood).
You're not going to find a municipal tiered system like FDNY EMS anywhere else that I know of. King Co. Medic One in Washington State s tiered, but it's completely different.
As you search, you need to realize a few things:
The vast majority of municipal systems have regular schedules in excess of 40 hours/week, typically 48 or 56 hours/week. When you see a posted starting salary, your hourly rate (and OT rate as well) will be much lower than you may have anticipated. For example, I worked briefly for Charleston County EMS in SC. My starting pay was $38k/yr, but my hourly was only $11.25/hr or so. That was for medics, BTW. Don't get tricked! I work for the Fairfax County FRD, outside of DC. Our firefighters start out at a little over $50k/yr, and their hourly is only $17-something, which is the same as a 40 hour employee making $35k/yr. Just keep that in mind. As far as pay, good luck finding a single role EMS employer that can give that to you. Many places start medics out at $35-$45k/yr if you're lucky.
Many systems outside of NYC have what's called an all-ALS system, which means that every ambulance is at least medic/EMT. What this means is that you'll go from running only high priority ALS job types (NYC) to running anything and everything, which means that most of your calls will be minor, non-acute (to say it nicely) BLS. You'll be running minor injuries, Allstate-itis MVA's, and frivolous sick jobs most of the time, and only see true diff breathers, unconscious, cardiac conditions once in a blue. It gets real boring real fast. I'm largely indifferent to EMS as a result. For example, the only two sick people I've seen all month occured last night - a peds stat ep and a critical COPD exacerbation. My typical calls in this all-ALS system include nursing home falls, flu/vomiting/feel-me-bads, minor MVA's, and psychs. I'm glad that I got my experience back in NY, because we run mundane stuff that typically doesn't need an ambulance or an ED.
Realize that in the NYC 911 system, the protocols are very restrictive when compared to the more progressive agencies. This is because there are so many voluntary providers (the hospitals) participating, and the FDNY has no control over their hiring standards and has little control over their QA/QI processes. MY OMD regards our protocls as guidelines, and will back us up if we can justify our deviations. We also have a lot of stuff on standing orders that the NYC medic would have to call OLMC for. We also have really good equipment and all of the tools needed to be effective EMT's and medics. The problem, again, is that we hardly ever need to do anything past vitals, ECG, and maybe a 12-lead and a line 90% of the time. I've gone more than a month without opening my drug box. It's really sad.
But, in my fire based system, we're very well taken care of with pay, benefits, and retirement. When I'm riding lead on a medic (called "teching" back home), I rarely have to lift a patient, since we get ALS engine companies on most of our calls, which gives us a total of six providers onscene. With our pension, we also have a three year DROP, which is where you retire, but keep working, and you collect pension checks in deferred comp until you really retire. South Carolina used to have that, but they got rid of it. This was referred to as a TERI, same as the DROP.
Realize that the average tenure in EMS is only 7-10 years, due to burnout from call volume/low pay/lack of career advancement opportunities, or leaving for a more satisfying and respected healthcare careere (nursing, PA for example). Many firefighter/EMT's and medics stay on until retirement. If you want to be comfortable, your best bet is with a fire department.Fire departments may give ALS incentives to attract medics, where a single role EMS employer is just EMS, so there's no justification to add differentials above the hiring rate. For example, when I started here in 2008, my base was $53k/yr, on a 56 hour schedule. My hourly rate was $19-something (FLSA laws mandate that the first 53 hours of a FF's schedcule are straight time). We get a $5,000 ALS incentive bonus automatically, as well as $3/hr to ride the ambulance, and $2/hr to ride the engine as an ALS provider. My real yearly salary was $71k/yr when adding these incentives. Now, five years and a promotion later, my base is in the mid $80's, and we missed a few raises due to budget shortfalls.
The pay in the Carolinas, most of Florida, and in Virginia south of Richmond drops off precipitously. There's no money in the southeast. I'm not about working for $10-$14/hr as a medic, working 56 hours/week as my regular schedule. There's a number of departments all around DC in both MD and VA that pay well, and hire medics quickly (in a year or less). CA and TX pay well for the most part.
Winter is dragging on and I could use a few extra calls!
