Same 'ole Same 'ole

[MMiz]

I work in private EMS, which is almost a different job than public EMS. Our bread and butter is the private transfers, and for the past year or so, our BLS units now only do BLS interfacility work. It's common to see two of our units holding the same post near a hospital, with a third unit a couple of miles away.

How do you do it? I think a lot of the draw of EMS is that there is something new and different every day. What happens when you're doing this stuff all day every day?

 

[SwissEMT]

reason #237 why I don't work for a private service.

Maybe you should look into switching services?

It's tough to be BLS in the private sector and not work on the Dialysis Express.

If you're getting frustrated with your current work place and you're losing your love for EMS, i recommend you try find a service which doesn't do as much basic transport even though it's in the nature of the private EMS industry. Maybe you should look into getting your intermediate license (if it exists in your state) or medic cert. I don't know where you live, but in my AO a private service is contracted out for all 911 calls and BLS get some decent calls so maybe look into working in the neighboring towns/cities?

Just some thoughts,

 

[KEVD18]

working bls in the private sector, with scattered exceptions, will involve predominatley interfacility transfers, burn + returns, the renal roundup and the great granny shuffle. exception to that will include working for a privet service that is contracted to do city/town 911. then, after working your way up the in house chain, you might get a rescue shift. another exception is a primarily transfer company that has a town 911 back up aggreement. my service run back up/mutual aid for the city.

also keep in mind, a town or city rescue is going to want you to have experience in the field before throwing you in the middle of the lion pit. and you should have some street time as a basic before advancing you level of licensure.

doing low speed work can get boring. but its good practice for you skills(pt assesments, vital signs, documentation etc). dont get discouraged. it gets better

 

[HFD EMS]

I honestly dont know how you could take doing transfers all day...i quess someone has to do it...but i hate getting calls at 2 o'clock in the morning and we have to do a granny run from the nursing home because the nurses are tired of drugging them to death and turn them over to us so we can take care of them....its definitely not my line of work:excl:

 

[MMiz]

In the past they would station BLS units in the cities we provide ALS services for, and use them as a second pair of hands / first responder units. They'd form a triangle of ALS units, and stick a few BLS units into the mix. That meant that we'd respond to 911/rescue calls, get our hands dirty, and then help the ALS unit load. We'd then go back into service. Generally we'd have 1-2 priority calls, and 4 BLS BS calls per shift. I liked it a lot.

Now they have us stacked up at the hospitals. At 2:00 AM I'll drive by the local hospital and see two of our units posted there. WHY? It's all of a 5 minute drive from the cities we provide ALS services to.

I haven't worked a whole bunch of EMS lately. I work special events and an odd shift here and there.

 

[MedicPrincess]

Matt-

I feel your pain. I just spent 4 months working our BLS truck. I picked up my overtime on ALS trucks. But 40-50 hours a week on the transfer truck.

But you know, its a job that has to be done. Now that I am on an ALS truck full time, I am never so grateful as I am when that BLS truck is in service. My truck spends 24 hours getting it handed to us. We come to work, turn our A$$es over to dispatch and call them in the morning to get them back. And everyone of the dispatchers constantly tell our supervisors how glad they are to hear me and my partner on the radio (something about us just sounding so pleasant and happy to be there). They like us....they don't go out of their way to screw us, and we still get it handed to us from 911 calls.

When our BLS truck is up, we don't have to come out of station at 3 am if we happen to actually be there, to run that gramma back to the nursing home.

Would I want to work for a strictly transfer service....NO WAY!! But I did sign up for some OT on our BLS truck. Easy OT $$...and the other trucks are just as grateful as I am when it is up.

 

[MedicPrincess]

Now they have us stacked up at the hospitals. At 2:00 AM I'll drive by the local hospital and see two of our units posted there. WHY? It's all of a 5 minute drive from the cities we provide ALS services to.

Venturing a guess....its Politics.

No hospital wants to wait for their transfers to go out. They think their transfer is the most important thing out there. By having the trucks stationed there, when the transfer is called in, someone is immediately available.

 

[KEVD18]

Venturing a guess....its Politics.

No hospital wants to wait for their transfers to go out. They think their transfer is the most important thing out there. By having the trucks stationed there, when the transfer is called in, someone is immediately available.

thats about. posting at 2am is pure bs right out of the dictionary but during day time, thats about the size of it. during a slow day, we may have 4-5 trucks aitting at the same facility. now it happens to be centrally located relative to the rest of our contracted facilities, but it is our bread and butter. and by is it funny to drive in to the lot and see 5 trucks lined up in the p-lot!

 

[Tincanfireman]

I have worked for a transport service since October as a second job, and my guess is that the driving factors here are service, tied closely to money. Hospital contracts are the bread and butter of any private provider and the competition is cutthroat. If you have the contract you will do anything to keep it, and if you want it, you will do anything to get it. We have the contract with the local hospital and a short response commitment. Our competition will literally sit at the doors of the ER in the hope they can catch us with everything committed, forcing us to the far end of the response time while an ER room remains occupied with a D/Ced patient. Thus, a reputation for availability is acquired and will certainly be mentioned when the next contract time rolls around. FWIW, I really enjoy my job (though I do get some 911 stuff with the FD I work at) and we do get a fair number of critical transports to the next larger city with my PT gig. For me it's the perfect mix, and I can never get to work quick enough (I've been an EMT since 1985, BTW, so the honeymoon is long over...lol). Delivering pt care to my older neighbors can be challenging, and I believe there is room to make a difference. In addition, it is an excellent training ground for vitals, report writing, and really getting a good history. My only advice is that if you don't like it and it makes you miserable, start cruising those classifieds. There are plenty of opportunites out there, no matter what your certification. Hope this helps...

 

[cmitchell93270]

no kidding their are jobs out there but you have to look, after i took the B class i found out that one of the private compaies in my area was hiring and i jump on that like a flea. The only thing is that we do local and county 911 and BLS transport, the ALS 911 we only have to rigs and the boss doesn't wanna have a thrid one on stand by. But i can relate to the BLS bs my second of three jobs is working as an intervicity sorry for the spelling EMT and we go 4-5 days a week with nothing, so our equipment and room is spotless till the other shifts arrive. So hopefully you find a company that you would like to work for good luck