betheljen

This system is very common in our region; most township departments are part time and paid on call. The part timers schedule is 0600 to 1800, seven days a week, and from 1800 to 0600 is the paid per call. Put into place because of the regular problem of finding day time volunteers, we have used it for approx 8 to 10 years now. A department close by, very small city department, went to 24 hour part time coverage and it destroyed their volunteer program. I like the way our system works, as we have plenty of volunteers to handle responses at night - not to mention, during the day if the part time crew heads out on the engine, we will likely get a handful for other apparatus. The unfortunate part of it is that there are so many firefighters and medics who make their living working two to three part time jobs. The money might be great, but they live without benefits or much security.

Ohio has first responder, EMT-B, EMT-I (85 and 99) and EMT-Paramedic. The EMT-I cert is scary, there are in house classes one can take in a few months and do everything a medic can do except cardiac. They are aloud to put a pt. on a monitor but they can't do anything...push drugs without the pharmacology classes, etc...not good at all. We do have departments in the state that will not recognize an intermediate; they must practice as basics or go on to paramedic school.

When you calculate your facts and figures, are you including insurance and other full time items that the township would be required to pay? Our department runs part time/paid on call and we average 1000 to 1500 runs per year. We bill for EMS, but we "soft bill," so that folks without he benefit on their insurance won't go broke trying to pay an ambulance bill. With all that, going full time has been brought up but quickly shot down. Even part time employees have a max number of hours they can work...exceeding that number would qualify that worker for benefits. So even with a billing system that cushions our EMS budget and loyal voters, the increase to go full time would be astronomical.