To post or not

[ThatPrivate]

I just want to know how many of you all post in a parking lot or intersection or return back to the station, house etc. after a call. If you do post what do you do between calls to pass the time by?

 

[JMorin95]

At My service we stay at the station when we are not on calls. We get to watch tv or do anything we want within reason as long as we can get on the truck in little to no time.

 

[TRSpeed]

SSM FTW.

Not really.

 

[titmouse]

SSM FTW.

Not really.

SSM? Sleep Some More?

 

[Tigger]

I just want to know how many of you all post in a parking lot or intersection or return back to the station, house etc. after a call. If you do post what do you do between calls to pass the time by?

I certainly don't to choose to post. I am told to, and I dislike it.

SSM? Sleep Some More?

System Status Management, as in fall asleep, and then be woken up simply to move to an area that maybe in the broadest sense of the word statistically, is more likely to catch a call.

 

[JDub]

I work 12 hour shifts and we post the whole time. Reading and sleeping are probably my favorite past times. I take my laptop to work and I can get on the internet through my phone, but usually I don't bother unless we are at a good level where I won't get moved and the system is quiet.

 

[DrParasite]

posting sucks. our units post are told to post on street corners (or 4 blocks of their assigned street corner).

the reality is dispatch doesn't care; you are assigned to a post, and as long as you stay in the same ward, and tell dispatch when you are going to wander away from your post, and are on scene at your calls 10 minutes after you are dispatched, no one cares.

and posting still sucks. SSM is the devils creation for EMS .

biggest things to do when posting are sleep, watching movies on laptop or ipad, surf the web if you bring your laptop, eat, and read books.

btw, while our units are given posts, since we routinely hold 911 jobs that are coded by dispatch as non-life threatening, they usually aren't at their posts long. if they make there at all.

 

[med51fl]

No posting or SSM for us. We have a station complete with kitchen, tv, beds, workout room, etc. If there is a large incident that depletes an area, we may be moved up to stay at a station in that area.

 

[exodus]

We're not really true SSM, we're more of a posting plan. If we have 9 units, they're posted here, If there's 8, they get moved somewhere else, and so on. Basically spreading the units out evenly through our coverage area

 

[chillybreeze]

No posting for us either. We go back to the station to do whatever we want to do as long as station chores are done. We can sleep, eat, watch tv, work out, play on the computer or game system. We have a full kitchen and an upstairs commons area with game system, big screen tv, pool and ping pong tables and sleeping quarters.

 

[Aprz]

I've only worked IFT. My previous company, we'd chill at the station. At my current company, we post.

 

[JMorin95]

We only post if we have to cover the city next to us along with covering our own area.

 

[epipusher]

system status FTL. between runs i sit in a recliner in front of a big tv.

 

[Metro EMS News]

At my former employer, SSM was done for all units excluding those dedicated to primary 911 response. These units were exclusively 24-hour shift ambulances and considered coveted assignments.
My current company only posts units at the station. As an IFT only service, employees will get up and promptly go. There is the realization that laziness could compromise the companies response times, resulting in crews posting on a street corner.

 

[DrParasite]

We're not really true SSM, we're more of a posting plan. If we have 9 units, they're posted here, If there's 8, they get moved somewhere else, and so on. Basically spreading the units out evenly through our coverage area

ummm, that's the definition of SSM......

 

[medictinysc]

System Status Management, I have a whole list of chiropractic bills secondary to SSM... Who in their right mind wishes to be posted in a parking lot, or worse on a street corner because some statacian wrote a program which "predicts" where the next calls will be from. With that being said, it always happens that I have to run priority across town to a straggler call

 

[WolfmanHarris]

We have a hybrid plan. We're assigned stations, but as stations get depleted we relocated to neighbouring stations based on a priority posting plan. Quieter stations gets dropped as available units do and when we have below six units for the entire Region we switch to street corner stand-by's and suspend non-emerg calls and lunch breaks. This thankfully rarely happens and when it does it's not for too long.

When things are good this means we go one station over for an hour or so and then back. When things are busy we end up driving all shift bouncing from station to station all day but never really stopping until we get a call.

Stations are pretty basic. Kitchenette, TV, computer room, lockers and washrooms and a couch for each person to bed down on.

 

[JDub]

ummm, that's the definition of SSM......

True SSM means that you move based on predictions of the most likely place a call will drop next. My system (and I am guessing Exodus' also) uses a posting plan. This means there is no predictions going into it, each level only ensures that the trucks are appropriately spaced out to cover our county.

 

[leoemt]

We post in between calls. I don't mind it too much because I have a good partner so the shift flies by. What I hate is our post locations are quiet as far as traffic goes. I like to people watch and being posted in the back of some golf course at o dark thirty is not exactly fun.

My favorite location is being posted in the U district. Lots of college girl walk ups, plenty of 24 hour food places.

I hate the gomers that walk up though.

 

[johnrsemt]

At the Fire dept in Indianapolis we would return to the stations
At the Private Service we would be posted; given an area (downtown) and have to be within a few blocks of it; usually an empty parking lot, although it was fun to post in the Zoo parking lot at night, the animals are noisy at night.

Here we return the 60-90 minutes back to our stations from the hospitals.