Disclaimer: I know Skip Kirkwood, and I think he's a very smart guy from NJ, who is both educated and is well known nationwide for always advocating for the betterment of EMS.
The fall of Durham County EMS started when Skip Kirkwood was hired. He had no idea how Durham worked .
Ahh yes, because Durham EMS operates completely differently than any other EMS agency.
He wanted all the old gaurd as he put it out.
Your county management hired an outsider because they lost confidence in the existing management. That sounds like the powers that be realized there was an issue, and brought in an object outsiders to clean house. I'm guessing you are one of the "old guard" who he wanted to replace with better people?
He took away a work schedule that most of us liked because he did not like it.
are you referring to hell week? three days on day shift, followed immediately by three nights on? you are aware of all the studies involving circadian rhythm disruption, and how it is detrimental to your health right? It's also one of the reasons I decided against applying to Durham in the first place, and I am glad they finally got rid of it.
He bashed the former management in open forums.
multiple people from outside of the agency saw there were issues, which is why an outsider was brought in to change things. Maybe you disagree with what he said, but admitting there is a problem and setting forth steps to rectify them is generally viewed as a good thing.
He was arrogant and the service had done nothing right before he came there.
Can't really argue that statement, but when you have been a paramedic since 1984, and have a doctorate, I'm likely to give a little extra slack. But you might be right that he can be a little arogant,
Which not true at all DCEMS was a respected agency until his arrival.
ehh, it was an EMS agency that served a county that had one major city in it. I have not heard that it was all that respected, or well known, at least not compared to some of it's neighbors.
I have heard that he didn't help with the relationships between DFD and EMS, but that was because he felt that EMS should handle EMS, and the FD should do first response and then hand off to EMS, not knowing that in the past, DFD was actually quite competent as EMS providers. But outside of the county of Durham, I haven't heard that DCoEMS was anything special before he got there, and heard several not so great things from former employees about the system before he accepted the position.
The call volume jump was his play on the numbers they were cooked.
The call volume jump was because parkwood VFD was shut down by the county due to financial irregularities, and the county EMS had to pick up their slack and put on additional trucks. how do you cook the numbers on call volume?
If he is so great why has not stayed anywhere long?
8 years at Wake EMS as Chief, 4 at Durham EMS as a director, 15 years at Fitch and Associates, 5 years as an EMS Battalion Chief in Oregon, almost 5 years as the State EMS director in Oregon, 5 years as an EMT in Hawaii, and 6 years in the Navy. And he has a Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate. All this information is on his
LinkedIn Page btw. It's not like he changes jobs every year, but even he will admit that he likes accepting new challenges, so why stay stagnant if a better opportunity exists elsewhere?
A lot of very good paramedics and EMTs were lost while he was there pushed out or terminated under questionable circumstances. Which resulted in payouts I might add after lawyers were involved. So for everyone who thinks Skip Kirkwood is so great the truth is he sucks and is not worth a s..t and was there way to long glad he is gone never to return . I am happy I am out of there
You know, I throw the BS flag that payouts were given to terminated employees. If that were the case, the news would have been all over it. I'm sure some terminated employees filed complaints with HR, even retained attorneys. But If there were there major payouts, someone would have leaked it to the local media, and it would have been front page news on WRAL.
I'm sure some great paramedics and EMTs left, and others were terminated. Maybe you were on of the terminated ones, who felt you were treated unfairly. Don't know, don't really care. I heard some of the stories, from people within DCoEMS, and there was some super questionable stuff going on, and medics who should have been fired years ago. A coworker of mine was fired form DCoEMS (albeit under somewhat questionable circumstances, meaning the punishment didn't fit the crime, but he definitely committed the crime), and while it stung at first, he's much happier where he is now. And I suspect that is how it is for the majority of the "good EMTs and Paramedics" who were let go, they found better jobs elsewhere. And those who weren't as good as they thought they were, well......
I do know that there are people at Wake who were glad to see him gone. There are the providers who a HS diploma and a medic cert who didn't think they needed any fancy college learning, who didn't like the fact that a yankee was leading their organization, one who had several degrees to his name. Maybe you are one of them?
