Moving to Atlanta

[Tony431]

I have been a paramedic for 16 yrs and I am moving to Atlanta this year. What is the best place, department or company to work as paramedic? I want to get good calls and stay busy? Thanks.

 

[Chimpie]

Moved to the EMS Employment section.

 

[luke_31]

Hear good things about Grady. But I only go into Atlanta when I'm transporting a patient who needs a higher level of care then what my area can provide, so I don't see them too often. One of our medics used to work there and liked it.

 

[Tony431]

Hear good things about Grady. But I only go into Atlanta when I'm transporting a patient who needs a higher level of care then what my area can provide, so I don't see them too often. One of our medics used to work there and liked it.

Thanks! I will check into it.

 

[MonkeyArrow]

Grady is good. Busy, covers all primary 911 for the City of Atlanta (which is actually quite big) and apparently some report counties in south Georgia too. SSM, all ALS trucks with mostly Intermediate/Medic I believe. Has about 40 ALS trucks, 4 BLS trucks for IFT, and a special operations division. Of course in city limits, you get a old variety of calls that'll keep you busy depending on where you are. Short transport times for the most part.

In the suburbs, you have Rural/Metro running 911 in North Fulton county. It is a more affluent region, with more SNF type calls. Little to no trauma or such. R/M is primary with fire response/back-up (each city has its own BLS truck or chase car or something). Also SSM.

Gwinnett County is fire based EMS and I believe that they have opened the first in-house paramedic school in Georgia. I think you have to be a FF/medic to get hired on. Decent county with good mix of call types.

Dekalb County is run by AMR. Dekalb is known for being the craphole of the metro area (aside from certain parts of downtown) so probably have a lot more traumas and "exciting" stuff there. Also SSM I believe, but they have a fairly large fleet.

MetroAtlanta, Central, and Rural/Metro are some of the major IFT players in the region.

 

[Tony431]

Wow!! Thanks, very detailed. Enough info for me to make a decision and research all of this. Thanks!

 

[Parameduck]

Sort of on topic, heard an interview of a medic who worked for Grady. Has a book out "A Thousand Naked Bodies"

 

[SavesWithGrace]

Definitely Grady! Busy non-stop, great shifts. Come to night shift...

 

[Vegasmedic]

I worked at Grady if you have any questions.

 

[MonkeyArrow]

Although the more I hear from Grady recently, the more it sounds like they are being run into the ground. Severely understaffed (so much so that they can't get trucks onto the road due to not having a partner) and they just run you into the ground because of it. Last Saturday morning, for example, they had 10 trucks on the road during peak morning hours when they used to have 25. A crew ran 7 calls in 5 hours with constant post moves in-between due to the SSM.

 

[Vegasmedic]

I left in July and we didn't have any major staffing issues OT was kinda hit or miss. But that was 7mo ago. We definitely had continued post moves and ran a lot of calls though. The equipment was kinda lacking and it down and dirty medicine but it was ok.

 

[Jon]

I've heard a lot of folks who "used to work at Grady"...

I kinda wonder what their turnover is.

 

[Vegasmedic]

Definitely a lot of used to work there's. It is a busy burn out system. There's people that have been there long term and I still wonder how they do it.

 

[XXLMedic37]

I'm currently in Atlanta and work for Central EMS. Central recently took over the 911 contract for Forsyth County and is currently hiring for medics.

I thought about applying to Grady but never did. What is the pay like for an experienced medic?

 

[Vegasmedic]

Not sure what it is with experience but I started at 21.02hr.