Martin County can realize significant cost saving by privatizing ambulance service

[BLSBoy]

I had a response, but its not worth fighting this battle.

I hope you all have lots of insurance on your property.

 

[Hal9000]

My personal belief is if you want the best care available and you want the most bang for your buck, you go third service municipal EMS. ( or even a well ran not-for-profit EMS agency)

I won't really get into the whole discussion on economic black holes, early retirement, etc., but I will note that the two most responsible EMS agencies I have seen were each from one of the quoted categories. Of course, that's just an anecdotal experience.

 

[Focallength]

The company I work for dosent handle 911 calls, however we handle calls from numerous hospitals and SNF. That being said when the SNF or the hospital has an emergency they dont call 911 they call our dispatch. Fire never shows up unless we call them, we handle all aspects of the call, not just transport. The average ALS call day is up to 40 calls in a 24 like wise for BLS. We provide better care than AMR and fire, we handle just as many calls as fire. AMR runs a fraction of our calls. We deal with pediatrics, Mental health, Geriatrics as well as calls from prisons.

yes wages are lower than they should be, butin all reality thats our fault (the employees) we shoot ourselves in the foot when we as fresh faced green EMT's are willing to take any job because its a job, so they pay minimum. You dont like it, well theres 100 other new recruits that will take your job and be happy about making $8 an hour. So if EMS went private, you would see the smaller companies getting bought out by the bigger, and hopefully unions would be formed. Thats where the major fault is I believe, Im not a pro union guy but there are benefits. Up here AMR is union and a green EMT will start at $15 an hour.

 

[FLEMTP]

The company I work for dosent handle 911 calls, however we handle calls from numerous hospitals and SNF. That being said when the SNF or the hospital has an emergency they dont call 911 they call our dispatch. Fire never shows up unless we call them, we handle all aspects of the call, not just transport. The average ALS call day is up to 40 calls in a 24 like wise for BLS. We provide better care than AMR and fire, we handle just as many calls as fire. AMR runs a fraction of our calls. We deal with pediatrics, Mental health, Geriatrics as well as calls from prisons.

yes wages are lower than they should be, butin all reality thats our fault (the employees) we shoot ourselves in the foot when we as fresh faced green EMT's are willing to take any job because its a job, so they pay minimum. You dont like it, well theres 100 other new recruits that will take your job and be happy about making $8 an hour. So if EMS went private, you would see the smaller companies getting bought out by the bigger, and hopefully unions would be formed. Thats where the major fault is I believe, Im not a pro union guy but there are benefits. Up here AMR is union and a green EMT will start at $15 an hour.

Maybe I'm missing the point of your post.. but...how does any of this pertain to Martin County Fire Rescue or the Martin County Commissioners considering a privatization of services?

 

[jgmedic]

The company I work for dosent handle 911 calls, however we handle calls from numerous hospitals and SNF. That being said when the SNF or the hospital has an emergency they dont call 911 they call our dispatch. Fire never shows up unless we call them, we handle all aspects of the call, not just transport. The average ALS call day is up to 40 calls in a 24 like wise for BLS. We provide better care than AMR and fire, we handle just as many calls as fire. AMR runs a fraction of our calls. We deal with pediatrics, Mental health, Geriatrics as well as calls from prisons.

yes wages are lower than they should be, butin all reality thats our fault (the employees) we shoot ourselves in the foot when we as fresh faced green EMT's are willing to take any job because its a job, so they pay minimum. You dont like it, well theres 100 other new recruits that will take your job and be happy about making $8 an hour. So if EMS went private, you would see the smaller companies getting bought out by the bigger, and hopefully unions would be formed. Thats where the major fault is I believe, Im not a pro union guy but there are benefits. Up here AMR is union and a green EMT will start at $15 an hour.

Seriously? Wait, you mean you deal with peds, geriatrics, mental health, AND prison calls. I'm sure AMR and Fire never do that sort of thing. You run 40 calls in 24 hours? Are all your hospitals 2-3 min away and your turnaround time less than 10 min? Come on man, I'm glad you're proud of where you work, but this was a bit much.