Good EMT companies to work for in the Denver area?

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Kyle Martin

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Hey all,
I'll be moving out to CO in the next few months...probably somewhere in the greater Denver area, but CO Springs or anywhere else really is an option (further towards/in the mountains the better).
Anyone have thoughts on what private companies are good to work for out there at the EMT-B level? Also wondering what privates handle 911 contracts in which cities. There's an old thread from 2008 asking this same question, but it seems like a lot has changed since then in terms of which companies are even still in business!

Thanks
 
If you didn't already know this, getting your IV cert is essential.

Denver Health does 911 for Denver, Englewood, Glendale, and Sheridan. We hire EMTs but probably won't be for a while.
AMR does 911 in most of Boulder County, Golden, and Colorado Springs, I think they run medic/basic everywhere.
Northglenn Ambulance does 911 in Commerce City
Falck does 911 in Aurora
Some of the mountain areas hire EMTs- Summit County Ambulance, Grand County, Gilpin County, Clear Creek County. I'm not sure what hiring or pay is like there.
AMR, Northglenn, Action Care(maybe), and Falck (hypothetically) do some backup 911 for Denver

Stadium Medical hires EMTs for events and does IFTs
Apex runs exclusively IFTs- ALS and BLS. I have friends that work there and like it.
iCare primarily does flight-team transfers out of Centennial Airport.
Columbine Ambulance still exists, but I'm not sure how or what they do
Mountain States and Metrocare I know nothing about
Mile High, Western, and Capital City you should steer clear of.

I hope that helps. Good luck, dude.
 
Wow, thank you so much. I was beginning to get frustrated when google wasn't giving me any useful answers, but that's EXACTLY the info on 911 contracts I've been looking for.

And yes, I see that everyone wants IV cert out there. Unfortunately since IV isn't in scope of practice for basics here in OH, nobody even offers the training. I'll have to just get it done ASAP once I get in-state over there.
 
You should be fine doing it when you get here. Some places might have an in-house class you could go though. It's worth asking.
 
Any advice for a California to Denver EMT hopeful? I have a pretty solid resume (IMO), so how hard would it be to get picked up by Denver Health, or another 911 provider?

Should I plan on getting a non-ems job in the meantime, or burn through my savings account?

Any recommendations on places to stay away from when searching for apartments, etc.?

Or better yet, anyone here have an extra room for an EMT looking for a change of scenery?

Feel free to inbox me.
 
Colorado Springs is going with Priority Ambulance for ambulance service in 2019. I suspect all of El Paso County will lose AMR at that point as well.
 
Which is terrible, because Priority is owned by the weasel Bryan Gibson, known for running First Med into the ground and abandoning thousands of employees with a snap lockout and no checks before Christmas (massive wage and asset theft) in 2013.
 
Tigger said:
Colorado Springs is going with Priority Ambulance for ambulance service in 2019. I suspect all of El Paso County will lose AMR at that point as well.
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WOW! I am shocked to hear this. I was always under the impression AMR Colorado Springs was one of the top AMR operations in the country (definitely the state) and that the only way they would loose the springs was if CSFD took over ambulance transport. Crazy. I wonder how many of their people on the street level will transition to Priority. @Tigger what is the current employee moral around the springs AMR operation?
 
captaindepth said:
WOW! I am shocked to hear this. I was always under the impression AMR Colorado Springs was one of the top AMR operations in the country (definitely the state) and that the only way they would loose the springs was if CSFD took over ambulance transport. Crazy. I wonder how many of their people on the street level will transition to Priority. @Tigger what is the current employee moral around the springs AMR operation?
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Yea I'm pretty shocked.

I don't have a lot to compare it to, but it is a solid place to work. For years the contract stipulated that AMR had to work with the city as a "joint system" and that was great for the employees. Equipment, guidelines, staffing, things were pretty good. Then fire started to get a bit more aggressive with getting more out of AMR. Staffing worsened, morale went down. But in the past year things have been pretty good. Fire is less confrontational but more arrogant and shockingly still employs a workforce of generally useless and lazy EMS providers. They wanted more money from AMR (1.4 million), I guess Priority offered more. I suspect now that they have a new contract that they will push on the staff even more. I don't think I'll stick around for that.
 
Tigger said:
Yea I'm pretty shocked.

I don't have a lot to compare it to, but it is a solid place to work. For years the contract stipulated that AMR had to work with the city as a "joint system" and that was great for the employees. Equipment, guidelines, staffing, things were pretty good. Then fire started to get a bit more aggressive with getting more out of AMR. Staffing worsened, morale went down. But in the past year things have been pretty good. Fire is less confrontational but more arrogant and shockingly still employs a workforce of generally useless and lazy EMS providers. They wanted more money from AMR (1.4 million), I guess Priority offered more. I suspect now that they have a new contract that they will push on the staff even more. I don't think I'll stick around for that.
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Sounds like its turning more and more into an Aurora type system.

When I was there it was a great place to get experience and I have nothing but good memories from my time there. Crazy how things change in just a few years. Hopefully the employees aren't left out in the cold and they are able to transition "smoothly."
 
captaindepth said:
Sounds like its turning more and more into an Aurora type system.

When I was there it was a great place to get experience and I have nothing but good memories from my time there. Crazy how things change in just a few years. Hopefully the employees aren't left out in the cold and they are able to transition "smoothly."
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It is still a fine place to work especially if you are new. Most of the fire guys are pretty apathetic so disputes are pretty rare. I just see the fire administration moving to control the ambulance more tightly under the guise of a "joint system." That would be fine if they had any idea what they were doing. And when their demands are not met a fit is thrown and that is when the line guys start to pull attitude. I just don't get how the ambulance contractor is suppose to be responsive when they are forking 1.4 million a year to the city. As a taxpayer I am disappointed by this money grubbing attitude and would rather see the city invest money into EMS with quality leadership.
 
ITBITB13 said:
Any advice for a California to Denver EMT hopeful? I have a pretty solid resume (IMO), so how hard would it be to get picked up by Denver Health, or another 911 provider?

Should I plan on getting a non-ems job in the meantime, or burn through my savings account?

Any recommendations on places to stay away from when searching for apartments, etc.?

Or better yet, anyone here have an extra room for an EMT looking for a change of scenery?

Feel free to inbox me.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't hold my breath for Denver Health as an EMT. We got rid of our CCT, so we currently employ more EMTs than we technically have EMT spots so there won't be much hiring and it'll mostly be detox van work.

AMR is AMR, but they do have 911 opportunities, mostly in Boulder County. There's a lot of hate on the Aurora system (and deservedly so IMO) but it's not a bad place to work as an EMT so Falck is worth a look. Northglenn Ambulance does 911 in Commerce City. Off the top of my head, that's it for non-fire 911 in the metro area.

I have some friends that work at Apex Paramedics and like it, but it's exclusively IFT. Action Care is pretty meh.

Steer clear of Western, Mile High, and Capitol City.
 
Tigger said:
Colorado Springs is going with Priority Ambulance for ambulance service in 2019. I suspect all of El Paso County will lose AMR at that point as well.
Click to expand...

This is tremendously disappointing...
 
Ensihoitaja said:
Steer clear of Western, Mile High, and Capitol City.
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I giggled... I have a former coworker who went to mile high and makes it seem like the best thing since sliced bread. They are ift only correct?
 
PotatoMedic said:
I giggled... I have a former coworker who went to mile high and makes it seem like the best thing since sliced bread. They are ift only correct?
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Yes. To the best of my knowledge, they only do SNF-style IFT. They don't have any hospital contracts.
 
Ensihoitaja said:
I wouldn't hold my breath for Denver Health as an EMT. We got rid of our CCT, so we currently employ more EMTs than we technically have EMT spots so there won't be much hiring and it'll mostly be detox van work.

AMR is AMR, but they do have 911 opportunities, mostly in Boulder County. There's a lot of hate on the Aurora system (and deservedly so IMO) but it's not a bad place to work as an EMT so Falck is worth a look. Northglenn Ambulance does 911 in Commerce City. Off the top of my head, that's it for non-fire 911 in the metro area.

I have some friends that work at Apex Paramedics and like it, but it's exclusively IFT. Action Care is pretty meh.

Steer clear of Western, Mile High, and Capitol City.
Click to expand...

Any specific reason Western is bad?
 
Watching this with interest. Anywhere outside Denver metro where an EMT with some experience has a decent chance?
 
Lo2w said:
Watching this with interest. Anywhere outside Denver metro where an EMT with some experience has a decent chance?
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Yeah there are a lot of places that hire emts's. Are you looking for 911?
 
HH1251 said:
Yeah there are a lot of places that hire emts's. Are you looking for 911?
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Yes - I've got a year on with an urban 911 doing 100k+ calls a year over 20-25 trucks. PEPP, ITLS, TECC. Time on IFT trucks and about a year in a Surgical ICU as a tech.
 
Lo2w said:
Yes - I've got a year on with an urban 911 doing 100k+ calls a year over 20-25 trucks. PEPP, ITLS, TECC. Time on IFT trucks and about a year in a Surgical ICU as a tech.
Click to expand...

Falck(911) in Aurora might not be a bad place for you. As an emt you will get lots of IV starts. Its not a great place for a medic. You could also look at Apex paramedics they do all IFT. I would absolutely stay away from Mile High Ambulance
 
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