We are the sole 911 transport for Tulsa, OKC and most of the suburbs of both, along with most of Tulsa and Oklahoma County. We are also set up so that ALL transfers within or originating from our area are "hypothetically" ours first, and we do frequent NICU, aeromedical ground team and interfacility transports (AMR likes money from those). We average about 70% 911 / 30% IFT on most days.
Equpiment is well-used but decent baseline....every truck has powered suction, an electronic transport vent/BiPap, (Impact 731), Lifepack 15s, power cots. Trucks are all Type-3 F450s. We are SSM, so they are well-used and beaten up. Supplies are often short of critical items because our management is currently practicing cost savings thanks to the stellar education they received at the Captain Ahab Business School. Gloves, cot sheets, blankets, saline, etc...there are days when you have to scavenge downed vehicles to go out.
Morale is in the crapper and death-spiraling. Supervisors, management range from "benevolent neglect" to "actively hostile" with a hefty dose of "not my problem". Credit always finds a home at the top, blame is swiftly placed on field employees. Lots of admin and supervisor-level smack talking of one another and employees in general. Payroll is an issue in terms of accuracy of hours recorded, pay rates and bonuses, this is an AMR problem. Multitudes of empty promises are the order of the day. Internally, it's very negative with the usual high-school cliques, rumors, etc. It's definitely not the small station-based system you know your coworkers at. Responsiveness to concerns is a joke. Pay raises are nonexistent for field staff, but dispatch is a much better-paying gig.
Benefits are decent. EMTs start at 10.2x an hour, paramedics at 14.73 for a brand-new medic. 4x12s, overtime is usually plentiful. I'm at 15.82/hour as a paramedic. A guy who has been here a decade is at 15.90 an hour thanks to dysfunctional pay and raise schedules. With that being said, we are pretty profitable for AMR- they make $250 iirc for each transported call in the system, of which there are many.
Onboarding is a 4-week academy for all levels followed by 2-6 weeks of third-ride FTO. Good and bad- very dependent on who you get as an FTO. Most are decent. Some are not.
We run P/B. Medic techs all calls, regardless, by "city statute" (really, Medicare fraud avoidance). As an EMT, you are essentially an assistant and driver (we literally call you "EVO" here). I have learned the hard way not to let my EMTs do too much because it tends to backfire, but most of mine have been homegrown EMSA-only EMTs who see me as an elitist :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored::censored::censored:, so an outsider tends to do better with me. Standards for perceived success are really low, but the CABS Training Approach does produce competent drivers.
For medics, it's not terrible. The pay is middle-of-the-road lower middle class, we are fairly autonomous in most things and can do a passable job out of our filthy trucks. There's no pride in the servoce though and QI works on the Principle of Exception, so don't be all "doing a great job" with niceties like effective pain management. Some things are very much protocol-driven, which leads to some truly stupid moments.
www.okctulomd.com has our protocols for download. We are in charge of all medical- Fire works for us.
It's a resume-builder, not a career place. Tulsa is somewhat better than OKC.
My recommendation? Look at where you want to be in four years and work towards that.