medic3326

Hello to all: First I would like to say. This thread is the reason I signed up for this forum. Although I am new to this forum I am not new to EMS. Being a medic for over 20 yrs I have experienced many types of ambulance services. The thread was started about private ambulance services. So here I go, I am a owner of a private ambulance service in a medium size town. My service ran 3600 calls last year, which is very busy for our area. Considering the average ambulance service in my state runs 700-1000 calls per year I feel we are very busy. Do I consider my service part of the system YES. We respond to all types of calls some emergency, some non emergency. When I opened my service in 1993 I decided that I was not going to be like so many other PRIVATE services, that I would always put my employees first (because they are running calls) but you have to remember that you are being paid a wage you agreed to work for. If you are not happy with that wage then move on. Back to my employees I feel I have the best staff in our area the average medic that works for me has 10 plus years experience and I haven't had a job opening for over 2 years. The reason being I take care of my employees. The medics that work for me make anywhere from 3-8 dollars more per hour than anywhere around. No goverenmet services come close to paying what I pay. My lowest paid medic made over $45,000.00 last year working 48 hours per week. My highest paid medic made $75,000.00 last year working 60 hours per week. These folks could work anywhere in this area, they choose to work for me. I give bonus money from time to time and they get a weeks pay for a christmas bonus. So in the respect that I may be different than alot of owners I know I am. I never ask them to do something they have never seen me do. Now to equipment, no we don't have the newest of equipment, but we do not cut corners on patient care. We sit down in a group (I have 20 employees) and we round table equipment that needs to be upgraded. We look at all the options and then make a decision together. If they choose a more expensive piece of equipment then they know that it will cut in bounces, but they make that choice. If 2 pieces of equipment will do the same thing for alot different money then why spend more. I work with each person on scheduling monthly, I give 12 hours PTO per month and employees get paid time an a half for working major holidays. So to sum it all up yes private service are part of the system, they have to have money to operate, and yes you do have to look at the bottom line very very close. But I am very proud of what my service does. We do alot for the community, not not just local we have sent teams for disaster relief on more than one occiason. If your heart is in the right place as a private service then you can far surpass many government services. In the end we should all put the patient first and quit being so worried about what other services are doing. We do not worry about any other service in our area, we feel if we treat the patient like we would want our family treated then we can't go wrong. Is everything always perfect by no means, we have problems like every service, but we handle them by talking and working them out in a manner so each person has a say. I will end for now but this is my thoughts for this thread thanks for your time.......